Wool felt attached to botton of saddle bars?

[pcovers]

I’ve not seen this question posted before. If your saddle came with 1" wool felt pads fitted to the bottom of each bar, would you be inclined only use a saddle blanket between the saddle and horse?

My saddle has the bars covered with only a thin material, without the typical large fleece covering. I want to be as minimalist as possible with a pad. Many pads are quite large and bulky. I am thinking through the physics as the bars press down on the pad and cannot think of how any part of the pad other than what is directly below the bars can be serving a cushioning or impact lessening benefit.

I am interested in gluing 1" wool felt to the underside of each bar and then only use a blanket between the saddle and horse. I should say that the saddle bars have a very good fit to the horses back. Thoughts?

[Rusty15]

I’ve seen saddles with felt instead of fleece before, but I’ve never been up close and personal to see how thick it is. If it’s a full inch of felt there, I would use a thin pad like this https://www.thinlineglobal.com/shop/western-saddle-pads/western-liner-black-felt as you don’t need the bulk of a normal pad.

[RPM]

If it were me I would not go to all the trouble of gluing wool to the saddle. I would buy a 1" wool pad and use that. Much easier to use, much easier to clean. And much more common, IIRC, which IMO means it works.

[Aspen1]

The advantage of a pad under the bars (preferably with skirts attached) is that the change from pressure to no-pressure is distributed over a wider area, thus dispersing the pressure from the bars over more surface area. With your idea, there will be an “edge” where the pressure will concentrate as it goes from full pressure to no pressure. That edge can cause damage to the horse. Using a pad is a better idea than just gluing felt to the bottom of the bars for this reason.

[GallopingGrape]

Think of walking around with a wrinkle in your sock, thats how the edge of those pads will feel. I would use a real pad.
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