Slippery Saddles
February 7, 2009 by Saddle Sense
Filed under Featured Posts, General Saddle Topics
I receive a fair amount of mail asking me what causes slippery saddles and how to deal with them. I have to be a bit delicate in my answer because the culprit is invariably a low quality saddle.
Slippery saddles are almost always caused by a finish that some saddle manufacturers put on their saddles. Good leather doesn’t need a finish and you won’t find any finish other than a coat of oil on the better saddles.
Manufacturers put the finish on because they think customers like the shiny finish and because they’re using lower quality leather that needs the finish to make it look better.
The best way to get rid of the slipperiness is to put a lot of miles on the saddle. Wear is what breaks in saddles. Adding oil or conditioner won’t really help.
If you’re really desperate, a conditioner that could give you some grip is a product called Black Rock, but it will darken your saddle and will rub off some on your clothes. So, it’s a case of picking your poison.
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Slippery saddles are caused because the saddle is out of balance for the rider.In other words the rider is riding the saddle.
Dennis
Hi, Dennis, Thanks for the reply. Out of balance riders definitely can be a cause of slippery saddles. Out of balanced riders are the cause of a LOT of what gets labeled as saddle fit. But lower end production saddles are finished off to be “shiny” with a finish which just shouldn’t bet there. It covers over the natural leather which has a built in grip in it and should be allowed to breathe.
Slippery saddles can also be dangerous! While jumping a small log my horse tripped, because I have a Slick fork and my saddle was very slippery, there was nothing there to catch me and I shot out of my saddle like a slingshot.