Poll about high wither horses, high wither numnahs & slipping saddles

[0ldmare]

I wont mention our company name so hopefully will avoid rapped knuckles from admin, but would like your views please

We are bringing out a range of high wither numnahs which are also designed to be very non-slip. Only trouble is, it occurrs to me that maybe high wither horses dont suffer from slipping saddles? Maybe their high wither kind of stops it slipping... or not. Also interested to hear if owners of horses with normal withers buy high wither numnahs.

So have cooked up a little poll...if you wouldnt mind

 

[KatB]

I use Barnsby Grip pads on my saddle with my 4yr old. The saddle doesnt slip that Ive noticed, but I like them for the extra padding they offer and lack of straps to cause pressure!

Only downside with them is they can pull down on my mares withers, so a non slip high withered one would be good

 

[HollyP]

I would always buy a high wither saddle pad even if my horse didnt have a high wither!

 

[beckieswann]

My horse has normal withers but where his shoulders are so big and where he's such a big mover the saddle slips back. I have a non slip pad and use a high wither numnah to help reduce pressure points.

I'd love to find a high wither numnah with an anti slip pad attached as even though it's not really a pain putting on both, with the slip pad the numnah does crease up under the gullet (yes his saddle fits perfectly - he's just such a big big mover).

 

[TGM]

I prefer a high wither numnah whatever the shape of horse, because I find it easier to keep the front of the numnah well up under the pommel. One pony has a normal to high wither and has a problem with the saddle slipping forward (due to very round barrel but narrow through the shoulders) so yes I would definitely be interested in a non slip high wither numnah for her.

 

[0ldmare]

[ QUOTE ]
I use Barnsby Grip pads on my saddle with my 4yr old. The saddle doesnt slip that Ive noticed, but I like them for the extra padding they offer and lack of straps to cause pressure!

Only downside with them is they can pull down on my mares withers, so a non slip high withered one would be good

[/ QUOTE ]

Thanks for your input KatB, we arent going for particularly thick numnah quilt, but we overcame the pressure from straps problem by always sewing the straps into the front of the numnah rather than underneath the saddle which I always think is a bit of a daft place to put them tbh. Dont really need straps at all, but a lot of people like to see them lol

 

[BFG]

My horse has very high withers and my saddles are specially made to accommodate this so therefore my saddle never slips in fact i can ride with a loose girth and it doesn’t move, however, i would always buy a high wither saddle cloth.

No if your interested here is a problem i have with saddle cloths.

1 They are never big enough in length or depth (my saddle is 19" dressage)

2 The binding always shrinks no matter how careful i am at washing them, so the corners end up curling.

If you could cure these problems i really would love you forever......

 

[teddyt]

I would argue that if the saddle fits properly then it shouldnt slip and a numnah cant stop a saddle from moving if the saddle doesnt fit. It may help, but ultimately it is not solving the cause, just treating the effect

I have normal withered horses and i have high wither numnahs, they sit much better under the saddle and dont pull down on the wither.

 

[0ldmare]

[ QUOTE ]
My horse has very high withers and my saddles are specially made to accommodate this so therefore my saddle never slips in fact i can ride with a loose girth and it doesn’t move, however, i would always buy a high wither saddle cloth.

No if your interested here is a problem i have with saddle cloths.

1 They are never big enough in length or depth (my saddle is 19" dressage)

2 The binding always shrinks no matter how careful i am at washing them, so the corners end up curling.

If you could cure these problems i really would love you forever......

[/ QUOTE ]

Hmm, well

No 1: is very easy
No 2: is also um easy. Typically its down to the binding machine set-up and the fact that its 'dragging' the binding round the corners so any tiny shrinkage causes a curl. Do you always use one particular make? (If so I bet I know who it is)

Nope those are easy enough

Teddyt : wouldnt disagree with you at all, no numnah is going to stop a badly fitting saddle moving (it would have to be super glued to the horse lol), but some help a little more than others

 

[K27]

Both of my horses are high withered and I use high withered dressage saddle cloths with their saddles. From an owner/rider point of view their saddles don't really slip though so I wouldn't feel the need to try a non slip saddlecloth- A few saddle fitters in the past have made the mistake of trying to fit a saddle too narrow to try and get clearance over the withers which is wrong. If saddle trees are fitted to correspond with the shape and profile of the horses back and withers in the first place, you don't get movement, both of mine have deep seated saddles that suit their back profiles and they don't move.

The only sort of pad I would use is a half pad so if my horses changes shape or gets narrower in the winter for example I would use that.
I definitely think there may be a market for a non slip high withered pad, but not if people have access to good saddles and saddle fitters.
A range of standard material high withered pads though would be excellent as the main make of these are very expensive esp if you have the ones with Lambskin underneath, theres not much choice on the market really and not every shop stocks the german ones which are normally reasonably priced and fit well!.
Maybe you could let people try some prototypes on their high withered horses and see what the general consensus is regarding non slip material- pherhaps it would work better with some type of saddle than others.

Good luck with your range, very interesting though!

 

[marmalade76]

[ QUOTE ]

Thanks for your input KatB, we arent going for particularly thick numnah quilt, but we overcame the pressure from straps problem by always sewing the straps into the front of the numnah rather than underneath the saddle which I always think is a bit of a daft place to put them tbh. Dont really need straps at all, but a lot of people like to see them lol

[/ QUOTE ]

I have un-picked the straps on most of my numnahs for this reason.

Agree with BFG, my saddles are not particularly big, 17.5 and 18inch, but the large Nuumed numnahs are only just long enough.

 

[Booboos]

I have a high withered horse with a treeless saddle and although the saddle does not slip, the numnah under it does, so I use the high-withered, non-slip version from Thoroughgood:

http://www.thorowgood.com/uk/accessories/numnahs.htm

This seems to sold all my problems!

 

[BFG]

[ QUOTE ]

Hmm, well

No 1: is very easy
No 2: is also um easy. Typically its down to the binding machine set-up and the fact that its 'dragging' the binding round the corners so any tiny shrinkage causes a curl. Do you always use one particular make? (If so I bet I know who it is)



[/ QUOTE ]

I have used mainly Roma because they fit, I like some of shires but they are too small, as are a most other makes.

 

[Sparklet]

With round horses the saddles tend to slip from side to side, however with a high withered horse they dont because the wither stops this type of movement. To be honest I would be surprised if a properly fitting saddle would slip on a high withered horse.

My problem with sticky pads is that the ancoraged is the horses coat which surely must cause friction or pressure....particularly with a high withered horse where you are trying to avoid slipping from front to back rather than side to side.

I wouldnt buy a non slip pad to be honest but suspect there are plenty who have round horses who would. I find that saddle clothes pull down on a lot of round horses and a high withered pad would be a great benefit.

I think your target market isnt high withered horses but flatter withered horses whose owners want to make them more confortable.

 

[0ldmare]

[ QUOTE ]
My problem with sticky pads is that the ancoraged is the horses coat which surely must cause friction or pressure....particularly with a high withered horse where you are trying to avoid slipping from front to back rather than side to side.


[/ QUOTE ]

This is the odd thing - we did some basic research and made some numnahs that were non-slip on the underside between numnah and horse, and also some that were non-slip on just the top side (ie between the saddle and the numnah). And then a few that had it both sides.

To our surprise the ones that had by far the best feedback were the ones that had the non-slip between the saddle and numnah. These seemed to help prevent movement much better, which I hadnt expected (and still dont quite understand tbh). So thats what we have gone with.

All that said, the non-slip element is really just a nice add on 'feature' and it doesnt cost much (just a different fabric) so the numnahs will be priced competitively with standard ones.

We are making up some samples and are going to take them to YHL to get some feedback. If thats positive we will be do a bit more testing to make sure the patterns are spot on and then will bring them out properly early in the new year.

Everyones feedback has been/is really useful, thank you so much!

 

[0ldmare]

[ QUOTE ]
A range of standard material high withered pads though would be excellent as the main make of these are very expensive esp if you have the ones with Lambskin underneath, theres not much choice on the market really and not every shop stocks the german ones which are normally reasonably priced and fit well!.
Maybe you could let people try some prototypes on their high withered horses and see what the general consensus is regarding non slip material- pherhaps it would work better with some type of saddle than others.

[/ QUOTE ]


Thanks for your input - yes just straight forward high wither in normal fabric is certainly something we can very easily do and will probably offer them at the same time/same price. The non-slip is only between the saddle and numnah though so is really just to stop the numnah moving. (Although oddly it seems we have found it seems to help with slipping saddles, which as I said above I dont really understand).