Can anyone recommend a western saddle pad or other remedy to prevent a high withered horse from getting saddle sores. Its a lesson horse that has to have a lot of different saddles used on him. Not my horse but I would like to suggest something to the owner that would be helpful. Thanks!
You might check out the Professional’s Choice Smx Air Ride OrthoSport pad. It’s not real thick but has extra padding behind the withers. I’ve been riding in mine for a couple months and my horse seems much happier. It comes in two sizes. The 30x33 fit my 16" saddle just fine.
If you can find a Reinsman built-up, cut-back pad then get one! My TB has shark withers and this pad was just great.
Haven’t seen them lately though…
It has to be the REINSMAN brand - don’t bother with the off-brands that claim to be the same…trust me on this! Also, built-up AND cut-back.
There was another pad that worked also, but I can’t remember the brand. Will google and see if I can find it.
I use a Won pad. Its the only thing that has worked for my high withered paint. Tried 5 star and several others, but they all rubbed. Found out about it from a friend of mine who does barrel racing. Keeps the saddle in place wonderfully too.
I don’t need a cutback on my sharkfin fellow, but if I did I would use the diamond wool cutback toward the bottom of this page:
http://www.bigbendsaddlery.com/saddlepads.html
Hate to tell you, though…the pad won’t solve the problem if the saddle doesn’t fit, in fact it can make soring worse. If you can’t get at least two fingers between withers and gullet when someone is sitting in the saddle- it just ain’t a tall enough gullet. If the soring is occuring at the base of the withers, but you have enough clearance over the withers, then it’s too tight and usually a thinner, not thicker pad would be needed.
I know you said it’s a lesson horse that has to use different saddles…but I would hope the owner would consider getting one saddle that fits that horse and the students can just adjust the stirrups as they need to. Actually, thinking back to the mid 1950s, I can’t think of a lesson horse I ever knew that didn’t have its own saddle.
My Saddlebred has mega-shark-fin withers and I use the Biofit correction pad. Valley Vet carries it. http://www.valleyvet.com/ct_detail.html?pgguid=b9b0256f-ac3a-4b86-90e9-a7f888a0e4ea The saddle still can’t be too wide; that is, I have to use a saddle with semi-QH bars, not full QH bars. However, different saddles have different clearance heights under the pommel, so for some the pad works alone, for others I add an additional 3/8" felt pad on top.
Impact Gel pads are expensive but totally worth it. We had a Mexican Mustang that had shark fin withers and marks on his back from ill fitting tack earlier in his life. We used an Impact Gel pad with wither relief and spine clearance. It was the only thing that worked consistently well on him.
Tacky too (two?) contoured swayback pad. Fits my high withered QH very well. It is not cheap though. Buck is slightly swaybacked, and high withered, and this pad fits like a glove. It is not cut back though. I have never had it bridge or seem uncomfortable to him.
