$1000 saddle pads?!? Are people actually buying these?
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The site is slow on my phone but I could make out that they are doing high end sustainable or organic textiles from sheep in the alps. I can’t figure out if this is a legacy company gone high end or new start up or what their main thing is.
The saddle pads look like Western felt pads a bit and they aren’t competition oriented or jumping high tech. I wonder what the market is? Is this something traditional to the area?
I’m guessing that is not US dollars.
I set the region to Germany and the price showed up as 795 Euros, which is $930 USD.
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Yeah I was wondering the same thing. Or maybe they’re aimed at people selling $$$$ export horses who want to take marketing photos with pretty, albeit baseline-functional, equipment.
They also sell a $4000+ blanket that, again, is lovely and would look impressive on an expensive horse coming off a trailer, but from a practicality standpoint, it can’t possibly be a worthwhile investment, right? Wool doesn’t generally wash up very nicely and it will almost certainly stretch and warp and lay oddly within a week or two. Not to mention poop stains.
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That’s how much some Hermes saddle pads cost and they’re just traditional cotton blend… Forget their blankets. You want sticker shock, check those out.
Wool isn’t cheap.
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I didn’t see any blankets over $1200 (“just” $1200 lmao)
I mean, good for the people who can afford that lifestyle, but boy, that’s just a whole realm of the equine world I don’t (and will probably never) understand. A $350 “sugar box”. Do you have to buy golden tongs to remove the sugar cubes from it too? Serve them up on a platinum platter to your horse? 
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The REAL comedy here is the care video. So cleaning this pad requires a proprietary “microorganism cleaning essence” and must be done over two days. I love how they think people that buy these are going to be the ones cleaning them. I can see the groom and the valet arguing about whose responsibility cleaning the Valor pads is. “It’s a horse item, so clearly the groom!”, “But it requires access to a climate controlled humidor to dry properly, and I don’t have access to the cigar room! Valet takes it into the manse!” 
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“How to clean your saddle pad” pulls out a nearly pristine pad
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So you can literally get a Western pad that’s very similar and have it cut to contour like this one… for like $130. This is insane.
I know one jumper barn that uses them as schooling pads and they are great… but not $1000 great!
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The fake bird chirping the whole time had me laughing.
And what is with the bit at the end showing the guy just standing there, looking all stiff in his wrinkled shirt?
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Silly neophyte, you clearly haven’t respect for your Zen saddle pad master. His shirt isn’t wrinkled, it’s rippling like a calm breeze over a lake. If you haven’t achieved spiritual transcendence scrubbing stinky sweat crust off of your $1k saddle pad then you’re obviously coming back as a toad in the next life.
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I misread this at first and was wondering what the big deal about a $100 saddle pad was, because people spend more than that all the time.
Then after some more coffee I adjusted my eyeballs.
Thanks for the good laughs this morning!
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Well, heck. I’m clearly in the wrong business. Pretty sure I can go to my local yarn store, grab some organic wool and knit a (slightly crooked) rectangular saddle pad that also can’t be thrown in the wash, all for the bargain basement price of maybe $40. It will also feature all of the same magical properties: smells like a delightful combo of moldy sheep and dirty horse when it is damp with sweat; tears just as easily as wool felt, and also cannot be washed in a convenient fashion.
I too thought it was super weird to end that art house flick of a cleaning video with the picture of the guy, unsmiling, standing in a field. Maybe the cinematographer wasn’t zoomed in enough to see the single anguish-laden tear rolling down the guy’s cheek as he pondered what his life has become now that he is reduced to vacuuming smelly wool saddle pads in an open field for the rest of his days.
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My first thought was, “Why didn’t I think of that?” I guess I’ll do a DIY kit for half that price instead. I can acquire plenty of fleece. Throw in some leather patches, and there’s your kit. Spinning wheel not included.
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He certainly made the vacuuming part look like it will take the place of any upper body workout you might have planned for the day. Darn.
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I really want to know what the deal is with the company and if horse gear is their primary thing, or if they are really a home goods high end blanket and throw company. I want to know if they are perpetuating a local tradition or if they are trying to start a new luxury brand. I also want to know how much they really have in stock or if they make to order.
For me the mismatch is that most people at the high end of horses have some exposure to the vast array of technically advanced shaped or foamed or shimmed pads out there, and also usually want something geared to a discipline or competition.
These pads look like something you’d put on a Halflinger to ride in the mountains circa 1900. I can’t see them having broad appeal to jumpers or dressage riders today. My guess is they are based on something traditional.
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