I bought a 1/2" felt western blanket liner pad on clearance and cut out the wither to use as a wither relief pad. Worked great… never seemed to get smelly. I cut it up for shims but could easily have made a contour pad out of it instead.
I found something similar by Toklat - their “woolback” line. It my favorite pad, and the washability is key. It’s not sheepskin, but rather a nice fluffy wool. I have a half pad that I use every day, right against the back, and a shaped pad that I save for hunt days. My half pad is probably 5+ years old and still washes up like new.
So, are we making custom pads or not? I’m sittin here flashing my shiney wallet wanting a custom pad.
[QUOTE=Grasshopper;7178888]
Sorry for the long absence from this post, but I’m back on a roll! The felt arrived in the middle of my week-long back spasm session. :mad:
Spasms are gone, felt is here, I’m about to start on the test run this weekend. 
If you’ve contacted me via PM, your requested pad is in line to be done next week.
Question for those who are interested in traditional-looking pads for hunting or the show ring: would you prefer real sheepskin edging, or would you be fine with Sherpa? I have the Sherpa on hand for the first few pads, but have a possible source for real sheepskin trim if there is any interest. Please let me know.
Thanks for the encouragement and input, everyone. 
Happy hunting!
(Is Opening Day really only a month away??!)[/QUOTE]
Sherpa. Keep it simple. Please share the results when you have a proto-type done!!!
I’m very interested, too. I’m in the Virginia clay country- Our hunt colors include brick breeches, which tells you about our territory.
Ok, so I will have prototype pictures up tomorrow evening! I spent a few days working on a pad with spine vents, but I haven’t been able to make one yet in which I’m confident of durability. Therefore, I’m going to stick with normal, unvented options for now. I’ll be happy to make vented, lightly reinforced “naked” wool felt pads on request–it’s the fabric covers that are problematic.
An Etsy shop is in the works–I’m waiting on a shipment of colored webbing and binding for the edges and girth holders, and then will get the listings up with all in-stock color/material options, as well as fully custom.
The washing experiment, by the way, went well. I even stuck my prototype in the dryer, and while that won’t be my recommendation, no apparent distortion of the wool felt occurred at either stage.
Any other requests or thoughts before I take this live? I really appreciate the input here. :yes:
I am liking the idea of wool felt with a cover or washable wool felt. Just the other day I was wondering why no one was marketing such a thing for english saddles.
Update: finally have some beta tester pads done, first set of pictures are here:
I would appreciate any thoughts on what kind of material YOU would want on the underside of the pads. I’ve tried both cotton flannel and linen. The flannel, of course, results in a heavier and slightly thicker pad, and certainly feels nice. Might take a bit longer to dry, but of course the wool felt is going to be the determining factor anyway.
I definitely had a learning curve to master, so the first couple are going to be schooling pads for me, and I’m bringing the next couple over to a very busy nearby trainer to use in her program and test durability (they’ll be used a couple of times a day and washed regularly).
There was also more to do on the business front than I had realized–besides setting up the Etsy shop, needed to fill out a bunch of paperwork for the state of Florida.
In any event, I plan to open the shop this weekend, so will update again with a link when I do!
