ANOTHER half pad thread

[stormhawk27]

hi all -
I am having a bit of a half pad dilemma. My personal saddle is an old, old Nelson Pessoa. No stamp for tree width but it has to be at least an MW. Current lease horse is a teenaged TB, and saddle is too wide for her (and as I ride probably 90% TBs… it’s wide on a lot of horses). In a perfect world I’d get a saddle fitter to look at it, but that and buying a new saddle is not realistically in the budget right now for a horse that I won’t be riding past next May when I move back east for my clinical rotations.

Previously, I was using a Thinline Trifecta with front shims which was working “ok”. I bought an Ogilvy a few months ago (got sucked into the hype and pretty colors) thinking that maybe the wider pad would help fill in the wide saddle. It did not seem to help any more than the Thinline, which was annoying considering how much $$ I shelled out for it… plus my trainer HATES it because it’s “squishy” and it compresses and she insists it’s making the horse back sore (horse has been mildly back sore as long as I’ve known her. She’s 14 with a long back and weak topline and owners do not have the $$ for Chiro)

So, I am looking at half pads again. Must be shimmable to help fit more horses. Should I stick with the Thinline? I’m also looking at Ecogold, and they have a 30 day money back guarantee and they will send front shims for free if I buy it through their website. Also have access to very reasonably priced Fleeceworks although I would prefer synthetic since sheepskin is a pain to wash.

Basically - give me half pad suggestions for wide saddles!

[Rescuer]

[QUOTE=stormhawk27;8718704]

So, I am looking at half pads again. Must be shimmable to help fit more horses. Should I stick with the Thinline? I’m also looking at Ecogold, and they have a 30 day money back guarantee and they will send front shims for free if I buy it through their website. Also have access to very reasonably priced Fleeceworks although I would prefer synthetic since sheepskin is a pain to wash.

Basically - give me half pad suggestions for wide saddles![/QUOTE]

Ohh I used to have one of those old Nelson Pessoa’s! I loved it! It was marked a MW but did seems to fit wider.

Having felt and touched and squished the Ecogold “shims” I wouldn’t bother with them. And this comes from someone who likes Ecogold and owns two of their pads. Their shims, in my opinion, just don’t really seem like they would do a whole lot because they squish down like crazy.

Since buying my current saddle I haven’t had to do any shimming except towards the end of winter when my horse has gotten thinner (he’s on 24/7 pasture). He gets a gap behind his withers depending on how much weight he is carrying. I have a prolite wither pad I will use when it’s really bad. I’ve experimented with putting a thin line shim in with my ogilvy half pad (used the ogilvy with previous saddle,don’t need it with current better fitting saddle) and that worked surprisingly well. I did buy the ogilvy front raisers and found them to be too thick and didn’t compress as much as I wanted (they start off amazingly thick).

Honestly if you’ve been having good enough luck with the thinline id stick with that.

[Backstage]

If you are going to be riding this horse for another year (or 10 months, I suppose), I would suck it up and have an independent saddlefitter out. He/she may be able to narrow the tree a bit and give you shims - the guy I use does this for me, and I currently have two shims made of dense foam that were cut to my horse and shaved down to the right thickness until I can even out my horse’s muscling. Total cost was EXTREMELY reasonable.

[stormhawk27]

[QUOTE=Backstage;8718974]
If you are going to be riding this horse for another year (or 10 months, I suppose), I would suck it up and have an independent saddlefitter out. He/she may be able to narrow the tree a bit and give you shims - the guy I use does this for me, and I currently have two shims made of dense foam that were cut to my horse and shaved down to the right thickness until I can even out my horse’s muscling. Total cost was EXTREMELY reasonable.[/QUOTE]

Is narrowing the tree on an older saddle like this possible? If so, that is definitely something I would consider. I love this saddle and would really prefer not to sell it but it is just SO wide. There is a guy at our local tack store that does fitting and repairs, I will ask him what he charges.

[soloudinhere]

[QUOTE=stormhawk27;8719692]
Is narrowing the tree on an older saddle like this possible? If so, that is definitely something I would consider. I love this saddle and would really prefer not to sell it but it is just SO wide. There is a guy at our local tack store that does fitting and repairs, I will ask him what he charges.[/QUOTE]

Maybe. Maybe not. Not all saddlers have the equipment to do it and they may have to drop the panels first and check the integrity of the tree, which can add to the cost.

[greywithchrome]

Ecogold 100%. Ditched my Ogilvy for one and never looked back.

[snowrider]

For older horses with weaker toplines I like those Wintec pads that are white foam. You can get them with front or back wedges or wedged throughout. They are quite thick, thicker than shims, and hold up really well. I went back to using one recently on a horse that needs to build muscle on her topline, I was using an expensive shimmable pad but the wintec just works better. I use it over a sheepskin lined pad and horse is very happy with the set up- totally pain free and moving great. She needs a wide tree but she has dips behind the withers that go away with work but come back quickly with any time off. She’s older so it is what it is.

[vxf111]

I’m very happy with my Saddleright

[jawa]

I like this pad: http://www.hastilowusa.com/pads/prolite-relief-pad.html#/product/147

I’d do the hyper link, but each time I try, my tablet crashes…

Looking back after posting…the hyper link seemed to work.

I like how this pad has 3 areas on each side to pad as needed.

I have traced the pads it came with and cut down the ones I made to fill in the spots that need it with out creating pressure points where my gelding doesn’t need it. By doing this, I was able to create a “skid row” panel for him…filling in that hollow area behind his shoulder, without creating pressure on his wither or just under the stirrup bars of the saddle.

Currently, I am using the “felt” that early childhood teachers use to create the padding/shimming he needs. You can get a pack of 8"x 10" (?) for not too much. He seems to like it better than the foam from yoga mats, or really any other shim ( some depress so much they don’t seem to help at all, or they are SOOO hard when cool/cold that it is hard to get a good fit at the beginning without him being super cranky ). This type of shim material is also very easy to adjust to an ever changing back, whether it is due to muscling or fat.