Saddle Pads: Thicker isn’t a Solution for Poor Fit
July 8, 2007 by Saddle Sense
Filed under Saddle Accessories, Saddle Tips
Ideally, the saddle pad’s purpose is to protect your saddle from your horse, not your horse from your saddle. A thin wool blanket should do the trick if you have a high quality saddle that fits well. The better the quality of the saddle and the better the fit, the less important the pad or blanket is.
With most production saddles (also know as factory saddles or manufactured saddles), having a good saddle pad helps fill in for some quality and fit issues. Old fashioned wool felt pads are a great solution. The newer gel pads that will expand or contract where necessary are also effective.
But padding can only help so much. A good pad can make an okay-fitting saddle fit better. No pad, however, can make a poorly fitting saddle fit well. This is especially true if your saddle is too tight in any area (i.e. the shoulders). Too many people try to improve the fit by adding a thicker pad. This makes no sense. When your shoes are too tight do you put on thicker socks? Of course not.
A too tight saddle doesn’t fit. The solution is a dfferent saddle not a thicker pad.
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I have gone through testing over a dozen saddle pads in the past year. The best one that I have found is the CSI Extreme Performance Pad. I have used it on over 20 different horses each with their own conformation issues with great success. Their website is http://www.csipads.com or you can read more about them on http://www.equinezone.com