Hello!
I am looking at western saddle pads for my horse. I am looking for something with great shock absorption that will also be comfortable for my horse and will not make her overheat. I am a fan of both felt and sheepskin.
If I went with thinline, would the felt or sheepskin provide better protection?
If I went with Toklat, would the felt or woolback be better?
I prefer high quality wool felt over anything else - I LOVE my 3/4" 5 Star saddle pad.
In my experience, sheepskin/fleece types eventually mat up and turn gross. Plus it’s annoying to pick out the hair and burrs that get stuck in it.
Well the Toklat felt pad says the liner is polyester … so I would pass on that.
And I would question how the “fluffy” wool is going to hold up to sweat and wear/tear on the Toklat wool pad … so I would pass on that.
I’m also not a fan of “tough fabric” on the top of the pad, which the Toklat does.
I know that Thinline makes good products. However, I’ve never seen their products in person. But I would have the same reservations about their sheepskin pad. The wool pad looks like a possiblity.
With that said, I’m with Cynical ^^^ I’m a 5 Star gal. I won’t use anything else! Love them.
We use 5 Star, but I recently purchased a felt Thinline pad on the advice of our saddle fitter. She loves 5 Stars as well, but in this case she wanted the Thinline because she felt it would protect the back better while the horse builds topline, and we needed something shimmable.
Sheepskin/fleece might be great for the horse, I don’t know, but I can’t bring myself to deal with the mess of one.
I think the wool felt in either brand or a 5 Star would all be decent.
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