Help End Pad Argument

[countrybrittie]

Hi all! I was wondering if y’all could help settle an argument between my mother and I? We have a 20 year old paint mare who is very round with mutton withers. She’s always been a bit hard to fit, and her saddle shifts side to side because she kind of rolls when she walks (can definitely feel this when you ride her bareback). I believe in partial that excessive padding is part of the reason why we have this issue with her. She was recently pinched pretty badly while on a long trail ride and I think that the padding might have something to do with that. My mom currently likes to use the biofit pad, but I don’t think that this is necessarily a good pad for this particular horse. It’s about 3/4" thick with a 2" thickness in the shaped area. I personally feel like this is causing her saddle to become too narrow and pinch her.

The bad pinching could be due to that saddle as well, but she was also pinched in a saddle that has never pinched her before with a different pad (impact pad 1/2")

Please help settle this.

This is her a few years ago. Nothing has changed on her conformational wise.

[La_Gringa]

Where is it pinching her. I like the gel pads, they seem to even the pressure out. You need a wide saddle tree… full QH bars for sure on a horse like this. The pad shouldn’t be an issue if the saddle fits right.

[countrybrittie]

Right where the build up is on the pad behind the withers. One of the two saddles that pinched her definitely fits her with no doubt at all. With other pads it has never pinched her. I do know that too much padding can cause a fitting saddle to fit narrow as I’ve seen it time and time again. This pad is billed for horses who are older with muscle atrophy behind the withers (why she bought it) or horses with high withers (why it works wonders for my ottb).

This is the pad for anyone unfamiliar
http://m.horse.com/item/classic-equine-biofit-correction-saddle-pad/E001711/

[La_Gringa]

I would go with a much thinner pad then, too much pad can pinch. If she’s really round like you say, she has her own padding so to speak. The saddle just needs to be wide enough. You can tell if it is if you ride her in a regular thinner pad and there are dry spots on her back… vs an even sweatmark. If there are noticeable dry patches the saddle doesn’t fit. I would stop using the pad with the build up before your horse gets really sore.

[SuckerForHorses]

If you have wide feet, and you buy a pair of shoes that are too tight and pinch in places, do you add more socks to solve the problem?

[countrybrittie]

That’s my exact argument, SuckerForHorses. I’m the one against the thick pad.

Last Gringa, these are the best pics I have to try and show her roundness at the moment.
http://i.imgur.com/XxX4ukL.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/PiFsUSs.jpg

[La_Gringa]

She is a typical build of a QH stocky… no thick built up pad… period.

[alexis_liberty]

Horse and Rider just had an aritcle about saddle fitting problems. They talked about using a too thick pad on a wide horse. It said not too. I have found the same to be true. The pad is probably making the saddle too narrow.

[chicamux]

I read the description of the pad which says it’s designed for horses with atrophied muscles behind the withers. You are correct, that is not this mares problem. However, many riders will use this type of pad to raise the front of the saddle. The rider prefers how the saddle feels with the front lifted. But, this type of pad will make the fit of the saddle tighter at the bars on this mare.

Maybe your mother likes the lift?

chicamuxen

[La_Gringa]

Lifting the saddle for the rider at the expense of the horse’s back… is wrong.

If you ride for too long with an ill fitting saddle/pad the horse will get resistant and sour…

Not right to use a thick front pad on such a wide mare.

[billiebob]

I have this same issue on the cowpony I ride. He’s built a lot like your mare and I use a regular Navajo blanket with my Thinline pad shimmed up a little on the left side. He is NOT a happy camper with a thick pad, even a 1/2" one. He also has some funky musculature from what I suspect was an ill-fitting saddle at one time, hence the shims.

[Just_Plain_Lucky]

I agree with the others. Less if definitely more in this situation. I would also look into whether or not the saddle fits correctly.