Foam vs. wool

[stryder]

Looking for insight from those who’ve done it.

I have an older Lauriche saddle that I purchased used. A miracle, because it fit my old mare well. I love the thing, and feel secure and balanced in the open seat with minimal blocks. Long, forward flaps. Perfect.

New horse. Saddle is starting to slide back. He’s adding muscle and filling in the pocket below the withers. I expect that will continue.

It’s foam. I have an Equiform sheet, so could send a mold of his back and the saddle off to get the panels redone, if I could find someone in the US. OR I could have the foam removed and get wool flocking.

I’m in the Seattle area, if that makes a difference.

Any experience/insights with this? Thanks!

[Scribbler]

@stryder

Looking for insight from those who’ve done it.

I have an older Lauriche saddle that I purchased used. A miracle, because it fit my old mare well. I love the thing, and feel secure and balanced in the open seat with minimal blocks. Long, forward flaps. Perfect.

New horse. Saddle is starting to slide back. He’s adding muscle and filling in the pocket below the withers. I expect that will continue.

It’s foam. I have an Equiform sheet, so could send a mold of his back and the saddle off to get the panels redone, if I could find someone in the US. OR I could have the foam removed and get wool flocking.

I’m in the Seattle area, if that makes a difference.

Any experience/insights with this? Thanks!

In general foam panels are much thinner than wool so the same saddle would fit smaller if changed to wool. It’s not a straight swap.

[stryder]

Thank you!! This is exactly the kind of info I’m looking for!

[EmilyM]

I tried to do this w a butet and the leather was too thin to convert to wool.

[stryder]

So did you find someone to replace the foam? Or just change saddles?

[EmilyM]

I had other saddles that were wool so I ended up selling it. I loved it but it wasn’t working for my horses anymore. I love the wool because my fitter just comes a couples times a year and tweaks the fit right there out of his truck, and it’s customized for the horse. You do have to upkeep the flocking. I tend to squish down one side more than the other. But it’s so flexible as your horse develops over time.

[rcy]

contact greg allen, he can work with either foam or wool and i’ve known him to replace foam panels to better fit a horse. he’s over in leavenworth now but does come over to the seattle area.

[stryder]

that’s awesome! Thank you!!

[Scribbler]

I think foam can be replaced but first you need to know that the actual tree is a good match for the horse. I know with wool flocked saddles you can fill in a bit of bridging or narrow the withers half a centimeter but you can’t make a tree that’s too narrow bigger through flocking. With foam there is even less room to fiddle.

If you can get a good fit with a modest amount of shimming then getting new foam panels could be an option. I’ve used gel inserts for shoes, sheepskin pads, and actual shim pads on saddles that had a small amount of bridging or shift. But if the saddle is bouncing around because it’s too narrow a muscular back is popping it off, changing the panels isn’t a fix.

[stryder]

Thanks for this! I think the overall tree is wide enough, but the front panels are too deep. I’m hoping the bottom side can be reconfigured to work well for him.

I’ve gone the custom/semi-custom route twice. Fail both times. If at all possible, I’d like to make this work, but it has to work for him.