I’m looking for recommendations to help with a saddle that bridges slightly. Every pad I’ve looked at has positive and negative reviews, so it’s impossible to tell what’s going to work.
I’ve tried the Toklat T3 and the quality was poor, with thin “memory foam” shims that seem useless.
What else is out there?
I use a fleece works half pad. My saddle fitter makes shims out of yoga mats.
Are the pockets critical?
I’m not a huge fan of pocketed shims because I worry about pressure points at the edges of the shims. I use the ThinLine Trifecta with two big slip pockets, one on each side, and ThinLine shims. The shims stay where I put them in the pad and don’t shift front to back, though if you only use a bridge shim in the center, it may slip down out of the pocket between rides.
I’ve used ThinLine, ECP, Mattes, and a couple of other shim pad brands and just keep coming back to ThinLine.
Prolite Tri Pad. https://www.advancedsaddlefit.com/products/prolite-tri-pad
I also have an ECP cheapo half pad - I pitched the foam inserts it came with, and instead use Mattes felt shims, with yoga mat cutouts for specific areas I want filled.
I should add, you could try and keep that T3, and instead get some better shims for it. Yoga mat, felt, whatever.
Mattes with felt shims. Maybe all the saddle fitters I have used have been old school, but this is what they have recommended. I have some that are sheepskin, others not, but all use the same varying thickness felt pads in 2 front pockets and 2 rear pockets. It has been several years since I last used one, because now I can afford custom fitted saddles for each horse. And I am a saddle junkie.
Back in the old US Cavalry days, riders were issued a block of felt, and they custom cut their own felt shims with knives to accommodate the one size fits all McClellan saddles to their own mounts.
I wish Mattes made a six pocket pad.
I like the total saddle fit 6 pocket shimable half
Pad. It has been so useful to help
With saddle fit on a multitude of horses.
I’ll second the Prolite Tri pad. I tried a bunch of different pads and shims to correct a foam paneled saddle that needed some lift in the front to get whither clearance–Mattes, the ECP with Mattes shims, Thinline–and none worked as well to correct saddle fit as the Prolite pad. The shims are excellent quality and don’t collapse down, so they truly do correct fit, even with a rider in the saddle. I feel a difference in my own back when I’m riding in the pad. And it’s pretty reasonably priced as far as all of these shimmable options can go.
I’m actually thinking of buying some thick felt from Amazon and making my own shims. Or buying a cheap yoga mat to cut up. I already own three pads I could shim, so maybe I’ll go the DIY route. Anyone have any success with that?
It might, with some trimming.
If you’re trying to fill wither hollows, I’d probably use one of the gel things that are specific for that.
You can get a decent quality yoga mat to make your own shims.
I made some for my ECP pad from an old Thinline pad.
Yes absolutely. I have a bin in my garage with felt and yoga mat material. So much cheaper, and so much easier to customize (my Old Man has half-a-shim in the bottom part of the pocket to pick the saddle up off his traps, for example).
My saddle fitter told me to never use memory foam pads. She recommends Mattes and left me yoga mat cutouts until it arrived. I use the quilt only one with 4 pockets.
Did she say why one shouldn’t use memory foam?
The shims the ecp came with went straight in my trash can
Yes, you can just squeeze them between your fingers to see how useless they are.
Also a big fan of the pro-lite, and there are generally used ones for sale in tack sale Facebook groups.
Winderen makes wonderful half pads as Comfort or Slim options. Both can be bought with a 6 pocket cover and each pocket comes with 3 different thickness felt pads.
I really like the ECP pad for the money. You can always change the shims as others noted. Mattes pads are great, too. But if you’re just looking to shim and don’t need sheepskin, they are pretty spendy.
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