Stuffing saddles with hair

[peedin]

A fellow boarder is learning to become a saddle fitter. I gave her my circa 1990 dressage saddle so she could take it apart and see what’s what. She just sent me photos that my saddle was stuffed with hair. The brand was Equibette and I bought it from Libertyville saddle shop. It seems like an old timey thing to stuff a saddle with hair. Has anybody heard of doing that recently, like in the last 40 years?

Needless to say, the hair was pretty tamped down. No wonder the panels and seat were a rock hard.

[Displaced_Yankee]

Not hair but my saddle fitter has stories of stripping and relocking Niedersuss saddles. Apparently there was a period of time where they were flocked with 70’s era carpet scraps

[Scribbler]

We’ve seen colored carpet fibers in old Passier too

[ParadoxFarm]

@Displaced_Yankee

Not hair but my saddle fitter has stories of stripping and relocking Niedersuss saddles. Apparently there was a period of time where they were flocked with 70’s era carpet scraps

Huh. I have two Niedersuss saddles. I’m curious! They may not be THAT old, though.

[ParadoxFarm]

@Scribbler

We’ve seen colored carpet fibers in old Passier too

Hah, I have one of these as well!

[peedin]

I bought a Passier this past August. I know it’s stuffed with synthetic flocking. No carpet shreds.

[Scribbler]

The shreds are in really old Password like 1960s

[Jackie_Cochran]

Supposedly my Talavera Portrera Spanish saddle is flocked with horse hair.

The panels feel nice and firm when I press against them and when I press with my thumb there is some give. This saddle was made in 2013. The panels are covered with canvas.

This saddle has a leather tree that flexes, maybe the horsehair flocking adapts better to this than wool flocking? I do not know.

I was supposed to have my first lesson in this saddle yesterday, but we had some much needed rain instead. Maybe I can ride in it next week.

Long ago couches were stuffed with horsehair, so it should have some durability as far as holding up under the weight of a human being.

[CanteringCarrot]

Yeah, my fitter mentioned that carpet scraps were a thing. I’m about to take apart an old all purpose saddle. It’s a cheapy old thing, but I got it for free and it was decent for lunging my young horse in to get him used to a saddle. I’m curious as to what’s in it.

[Displaced_Yankee]

My landlord’s personal home has 2 ft wide walls between the original and renovated areas that are stuffed with horsehair.

(Horsehair was the original insulation before the addition in the 1920’s…and so on and so forth)

[peedin]

If I recall correctly, the saddle was made in Spain. Perhaps it’s not uncommon in Spain to stuff things with horse hair.

[Paint_Party]

@Displaced_Yankee

My landlord’s personal home has 2 ft wide walls between the original and renovated areas that are stuffed with horsehair.

Wow, that’s a lot of horsehair!

I’m assuming horsehair stuffing is tail hair, right?

[Displaced_Yankee]

I will admit that I do not know. I can only assume so?

(The doorframe between sitting and kitchen is indeed 2 ft wide)

[TooManyTBs]

I bought an early 90s Niedersuss that was stuffed with what looked like a clown wig. Orange curly polyester. I absolutely love it now that it’s been strip flocked.