Norton gel pad for high withers... what are your educated opinions?

[Keith_Beef]

Where I ride (riding centre belonging to the municipality, management outsourced to a commercial outfit), there are a few horses with high withers... In the tack rooms there are charts showing which horses need which gear: a thick felt pad with a cut-out for the withers, some with a pad but often without, and some with a Norton gel pad then either a numnah and pad or a thick felt pad (also addition to the bridle: gog, martingale, etc).

I very often get one of the horses with high withers, but there are only two of these gel pads available; last Sunday there were three of us in the class with horses marked down as needing the gel pad. I had a word with the instructor before tacking up, and he asked me to pass the two pads to the two girls

If I've understood the purpose of the Norton gel pad and of the thick felt pad, it is to take pressure off the withers; so if the gel pad is absent, there will be excessive pressure and rubbing on the withers making the horse uncomfortable. At the moment, this horse is not getting enough exercise and is "boisterous" at the best of times, so I'm a bit worried that adding discomfort to this pent-up energy is an accident waiting to happen.

Which is why this morning I decided that I'd buy one of these Norton gel pads, and a couple of other bits of kit: a sheepskin noseband cover for a headcollar and a new crop (I used my old and raggedy one as a shoehorn to pull on a new pair of wellies and broke off the tip).

And then I thought to myself "maybe I should have sought some advice on the forum, first"... Oh well, it's done now, but I'd still like to know what you lot think of these gel pads.



And for a laugh, I am N° Zero in the Padd loyalty points scheme...

 

[milliepops]

Keith, do the horses all share saddles?
really they shouldn't be needing these various pads to relieve pressure, if a horse has a well fitted saddle the pressure won't be there anyway.

not that it answers your question particularly, if they are all needing pads but there aren't enough then i think it's kind of you to have bought one and you're right, adding discomfort to a horse that needs more exercise than it is getting is just asking for trouble.

 

[AShetlandBitMeOnce]

I use this pad under my saddle which helps to pad the area behind the wither lacking muscle and allows space for his very high wither, I have a saddle which is cut back however so even without it there would be no contact on this area.

Echo what Milliepops has said though, it sounds like a common in riding school practise but one that is less than ideal. If you want to keep riding here then I would imagine it would help, but really they should each have a saddle which is fitted to them of course.

 

[Keith_Beef]

Keith, do the horses all share saddles?
really they shouldn't be needing these various pads to relieve pressure, if a horse has a well fitted saddle the pressure won't be there anyway.

not that it answers your question particularly, if they are all needing pads but there aren't enough then i think it's kind of you to have bought one and you're right, adding discomfort to a horse that needs more exercise than it is getting is just asking for trouble.

No, they don't share saddles, each horse has its own saddle, and in theory don't share other tack. Occasionally the instructors swap them around, I suppose to work round temporary problems like minor scrapes, sore spots or damaged tack like a girth that has a broken buckle or damaged stitching.

And not every horse is marked down as needing either the felt pad or the gel pad.

I use this pad under my saddle which helps to pad the area behind the wither lacking muscle and allows space for his very high wither, I have a saddle which is cut back however so even without it there would be no contact on this area.

Echo what Milliepops has said though, it sounds like a common in riding school practise but one that is less than ideal. If you want to keep riding here then I would imagine it would help, but really they should each have a saddle which is fitted to them of course.



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The equipment and the facilities are generally lacking, and there are organisation problems.

The centre belongs to the town, and so the town council is responsible for organising upkeep of all the buildings and fences, and pruning of all the trees and bushes, but other than totally renovating the living quarters over one block of stables, it hasn't been doing much maintenance at all since I started going there in 2012; it is in a very sorry state.

The horses and tack belong to (or are rented by) the company that won the contract three years ago, and the budget was tight even before Covid put a stop to activities for a while and then current restrictions have led to quite a lot of the adults and a few of the teenagers to cancel their subscriptions. The instructors and employees at the centre don't seem to know how to sew leather, have other things to do and I understand that the employees who are contracted to work looking after the horses' feed and bedding aren't going to put in unpaid overtime repairing tack (or learning how to do it).

I've taken home tack to repair on a couple of occasions and made some repairs at the centre (restitching bridles and reins, replacing Sam Browne studs, tightening loose bolts on doors and locks). I'm not going to go up there with the lopping shears to cut back the bushes, or with a bag of mortar to repoint the brickwork.

This might be my last season there; I'm seriously considering moving to one of the other schools on this side of town.

It's a shame, because it could be a really, really good centre.

It has a really big arena and a decent sized manège; upstairs over the office there's a room that's used for teaching and for social events and it has a counter with a sink (could be used as a bar) with a kitchen area and serving hatch behind, and a couple of other smaller rooms. There are rooms over one block of stables with lockers where we should be able to store personal equipment, but about half of the lockers have either bent doors or the locks have been removed.

And it's very convenient for me, being a bit less than 400 metres away. The one I'm thinking of going to is 1km away, and it's where my daughter did her last year before giving up riding.

 

[sbloom]

I think there are much better ways to pad for a wither and/or muscle loss but they would be more dedicated to each horse and not swappable between, ie a good shim pad like Mattes with appropriate set up.

 

[Keith_Beef]

I think there are much better ways to pad for a wither and/or muscle loss but they would be more dedicated to each horse and not swappable between, ie a good shim pad like Mattes with appropriate set up.

I didn't know about those, thanks for mentioning them. From looking at Classic Dressage's website I think I understand how they work, but it looks like they require a special saddle cloth with the pockets, and I don't see one for sale on that site, I only see the shims.

But I think you'll have already realised that a school that can't manage to scrape together three or four of these pads is not likely to be able to get itself organised with Mattes shims.

 

[sbloom]

Absolutely, I'm sure it would be a stretch too far. You can buy ANY Mattes numnah, half pad, square, Western etc with shim pockets and shims. I only recommend sheepskin lined, I use them for my remedial saddle fits and also run this group for people to buy and sell them on FB https://www.facebook.com/groups/249099556465914. If you go for unlined with shims I would only go for a half pad and use it over at least a numnah with a decent wadding in it.