Hi! I just purchased my dream saddle, a brown bates dressage+. I was toying with it today (still haven’t used it on my horse, I’ll get to for the first time tomorrow!) and I noticed that one panel squeaks when pressure is placed on it and the other does not.
Does this signifiy that the CAIR panel has ruptured? It doesn’t look as though it has, but the sound worries me.
Any advice or experience?
Thanks in advance!
You generally can feel if the CAIR has ruptured by pushing hard on it. Is it squeaky in the front?
No, only in the back.
Years ago someone brought a Bates into the tack store where I worked. We didn’t sell it to her but we carried Bates. It was squeaking and her horse had started acting “funny” at about the same time.
We removed the air bladders and found that one had folded over the other (they overlap) so we bought a hair dryer and heated the curled air bladder until we could straighten it out and reinstalled it. Customer took it back and rode. No more squeak and a happy horse.
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