Spin Off: Using Lexan Inserts with a Treeless Saddle

[tabula_rashah]

Starting a new thread so my question doesn’t get lost in the other one.

Anyway, it was mentioned that Lexan inserts can be used in the pad for treeless saddles. Do you cut your own? Or is there a tack store that already has them for sale? How thick is the Lexan?

[PRS]

I weigh over 170 lbs so I’m very attentive to pressure and clearance issues under my saddle. I’ve made my own poron inserts to go over my skito foam. I purchased a sheet of poron from here: http://store.acor.com/products/PORON-Medical®-Urethane-Sheets.html and cut them to the same shape as my Skito foam then used my dremell to bevel the edges. It seems to work well for me to get the clearance I need under my Sensation. With the Lexan I would be worried that the hard edges would wear a hole in my pad cover. I would maybe be tempted to look into it further if I felt I wasn’t getting good results with my current set up. I had tried felt inserts on top of my skito foam before and felt that they were too hard.

[Lifting_Chickk]

I think the Lexan inserts Skito offers are just disks that sit under the riders seatbones. Someone more intimate with Skito can certainly correct me if I’m wrong.

I made my own pads to go under my two treeless saddles. I purchased the Lexan sheets (I only saw one thickness, but don’t remember what that was…) at Home Depot and cut them myself (with a Dremel tool) to a pattern I had drawn that extends the full length of the pad. The Lexan was cut to the contour of the pad and a little narrower than the top layer of laminated memory foam. The edges were rounded. (also with the Dremel)

I then used my willing horse as a model, heated the Lexan with a heat gun, and moulded each piece to the shape of her back. (using a saddle pad as an interface, of course! The Lexan was hot)

These Lexan panels that have been cut and moulded to my horse’s back slide into pockets on the inside of the pad cover. This keeps them in place and helps distribute the riders weight over the full length of the pad.

I have a blog post about how I made the pad for my Sensation. I can’t share the link directly from work as I can’t access my blog from here, but if you click on the link below and search around, you should find it.

[Auventera_Two]

Wow great thread!! I have never needed to use the Lexan inserts but this is great information to have for future use I know that people do it all the time, but I didn’t know how people went about creating the Lexan sheets.

[PRS]

Y’know…I got to thinking about the lexan panels and if I can lay aside the fear that they would wear a hole in my expensive Skito cover I might be very tempted…I have some sides of upholstery leather laying about…hmmmm…off to the workshop to dust off my dremmel tool.

[katyb]

I bought mine from Chris Martin, pre-cut to match the pads on my Haf pad.

[tollertwins]

link for ones pre-cut for haf pads? or link to guy who makes them?

[Golden_Pony]

I just got the new laminated inserts from Tom at Skito. They are 1/2" firm foam with a mesh laminated between. Haven’t had a chance for anything longer than 1 hour ride, but so far they seem to be providing more support. (Used with BMSS endurance saddle, 177lb rider, 14.3 Haflinger). If you call Tom at Skito he can give you more “technical” info, and he does also make Lexan inserts.

[katyb]

[QUOTE=tollertwins;5995640]
link for ones pre-cut for haf pads? or link to guy who makes them?[/QUOTE]

I don’t have Chris Martin’s contact info anymore. I sent him an email to the address I used when I bought my saddle, and it bounced. I bet if you asked on the yahoo treeless group, someone would know.

[Lifting_Chickk]

I got mine at Home Depot.

[GallopingGrape]

So Lexan doesn’t bend or crack?

[Lifting_Chickk]

GG, nope. Lexan has some flex to it, but it is very strong and will not crack.

[froglander]

[QUOTE=Daatje;5994883]
I have a blog post about how I made the pad for my Sensation. I can’t share the link directly from work as I can’t access my blog from here, but if you click on the link below and search around, you should find it.[/QUOTE]

Is this the right post?

http://foxhuntingfriesian.blogspot.com/2011/05/sewing-project.html

[CanterQueen]

Golden Pony, you might start having issues with longer trail rides. I did. It isn’t the pad so much as it’s the pressure point (I only have experience with BM saddles) on the top of the spine where the pressure from the stirrups hits. I started getting white hairs and had my vet take a look and she agreed it was pressure from all my weight bearing down on that one spot. Just FYI.