Since my horse has lost weight (she was basically living in retirement for several months since her previous owner went off to college) I’ve noticed that the back half of my saddle is creating rubs on her back. I had the saddle fitter out to check the saddle fit 1.5 months ago and she said it fit well but she’s lost weight since then. I ride with an ogilvy baby pad and a thinline half pad but i’m still noticing rubs on her back. It doesn’t hurt her when I touch them and she’s not back sore so I was wondering if there’s some sort of half pad I should try out. I’ll be having the saddle fitter out again in a couple weeks but until then is there some sort of pad or some other piece of equipment I could use to keep the saddle from creating rubs? Do you think saddle fit is causing the rubs or could it be something else?
I’m going to guess she wasn’t clipped for winter. It’s likely just rubs due to coat changing from winter to summer. Assuming rubs are around back of saddle and even on both sides. I can see rubs (hair breaking) when I take my saddle off after ride right now also but my horse also isn’t bothered by them. Still good to get saddle fitter out to check but I wouldn’t stay up at night worrying!
She is clipped and you’re right to assume that the rubs are on the back of the saddle on both sides. You mentioned that you horse gets rubs right now, do they go away in summer/fall? Or is it an annual thing?
My mare has sensitive skin and gets rubs in the spring/summer. Fleece or sheepskin lined saddle pads prevent it.
It might happen (to a lesser degree) when changing from summer to winter coat also. But winter to summer tends to be more obvious because of being hairier and hair being longer.
I rode a school horse with this issue and it turned out that the spines of the saddle pads had been rubbing him. My trainer made him a homemade seamless pad out of a really soft fabric and it went away.
