cair saddles?

I had the cair out and flocking put in. Can send you a cair panel if you want to see one from a brand new saddle!! Peice of ordinary foam in a sealed plastic "bag". I thought they were like air filled panels. I imagined it to be like a giant bubble wrap bubble. They are not!
 
If you want me to send you one.......I have 3 left ...pm me your address then you can make your own mind up. These are from a brand new Wintec Wide (cob) saddle.
It cost me £50, a bacon butty, lemon cake and copious quantities of tea to have cair removed and flocking put in :)

Will try and take some photos tomorrow.......
 
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With Cair, the panels are hard and they can go flat with use, it's the foam inside which is ordinary seam foam we use on saddle seats but with saddle seats it is a larger area and a greater bearing surface so doesn't go flat so quickly.
I have replaced the foam in the saddles using it but in all honesty it would have been better to let me convert it to a flocked system instead.
 
Some horses get on fine with them, just as some horses get on fine with the strange shape of Wintec head plates. I don't like either personally - air is under high pressure once you sit on a sealed bag of it, though the makers and fitters of them insist that because it goes in at a low pressure, same as Flair, then it's fine. Put 10 stone on it and it's under pressure! And air under pressure is what is in footballs, which bounce.
 
I have two cair saddles love them. one is an old one and the other is brand new. never had any problems with them or the horses that have and currently wear them. My first horse wore it hers for 6/7years went everywhere and did everything in it never had any back problems. current horse always ridden treeless before i got her had few problems getting her to ajust to tree'ed saddles but the cair saddle she liked and was happy in.
People say cair can be hard but i have had many more problems with over flocked or lumpy flocking than i ever have had with cair.
My oldest saddle is now about 9/10yrs old i would never sell it and i would choose cair over flocking any day. but as with everything so people will love it others will hate it.
for me i love it
 
I have a Wintec Pro Dressage Saddle that I bought a good 8 years ago with the Cair system, then last year I decided to buy another Wintec Saddle for my other horse again with the Cair system.

When the saddler came to fit the new saddle I also asked her to check my other saddle as I thought after all this time it may need correcting. Well I was very surprised to be told that nothing needed done to it and it fit my pony perfectly.

Both my horses go well in their saddles and have never experienced any nipping, sore backs, pressure points or any discomfort of ay kind.

So in my experience I find the Wintec Cair saddles are brilliant.
 
Ugh, insomnia. NFs can be amongst the flattest of the natives, flatter than most cobs, and they often take our flattest tree. I'd be very surprised if any Wintec would work as the tree will be too curvy from front to back. If you do try one, once you have it set to the right width, watch for any lift at the back in rising trot, and any lateral instability. Saddles should be very stable, they should not move, and I suspect you will get some movement.
 
We have 3 saddles with Cair 2 Bates, 1 Wintec), and haven't had any issues. With the newest horse when the saddler came out to check the saddle, he said he wasn't a fan of Cair and had removed it and flocked quite a few. We were open minded and were happy to go this route, but when he checked the saddle he was very happy with the fit - so he lost me paying for it to be flocked.
 
The only problem I find with the cair system is where the air bags cross each other, if you run your hand along the panel, you will find a ridge where one bag goes up over the other and forces the lower one down against the horse, this has caused some sensitive horses to react, I have removed the bags and replaced them with conventional wool flocking, its very simple to do on the bates and wintec.
 
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