Recommendations for a front riser pad?

[Casey76]

I'm currently riding T in B's saddle until she slims back down into her own saddle - hopefully this wont take too long!

The pair of them had a general saddle fit check yesterday when the osteo came, and he confirmed that T's saddle is still a little too narrow (i.e. she's still too fat for it). B's saddle is now very slightly too wide so it sits a bit low in front but would do with a front riser for a short time.

Basically neither saddle is 100%, but it would be better to pad the wider saddle than to ride in the too narrow one.

Despite my saddle fetish, even I can't justify buying *another* saddle which is only going to be for a few weeks, especially as T is hard to fit, and an XXW saddle with flat trees tend to be expensive and hard to come by.

Despite having two (very expensive) Mattes correction half pads, they are too thick and fluffy (sadly!), and provide too much lift all over, even without shims in the back pockets.

Oh, woe is me... I have to go to a tack shop *again* *sniffles* B)

 

[Under-the-radar]

If your saddler has suggested a front riser, I would ask them to advise which would be best - I think it's really going to depend on how much lift is needed.

The Wintec front risers have a fair chunk of lift, but I found them too solid for my horse. We have had much better results either the Griffin Nuumed shimmy pad, or the Le Mieux shim pad. If you have found the Mattes pads giving too much lift all over, you would like find the same with the the Le Mieux ones - but the Nuumed shimmy pad is fairly slim if you remove the back shim pads (and get the one without wool).

 

[SallyBatty]

i use the Proline multi riser:
http://www.houghtoncountry.co.uk/pr...+listing+ads&gclid=CLOoo6jNnc0CFfMV0wodUfIPHg

The reason I like this one is because it is lightly padded and comes with 2 different thicknesses of both front and back pads which you can then add as required.

 

[muddy_grey]

I used the acavallo gel front riser with my old saddle and it was great. Ads no bulk behind and is anti slip. Only thing is you can't change the thickness at the front. I use it directly on the horses back FYI.

 

[saddlesore]

Prolite wither pad, will lift it slightly without affecting the rest of your saddle. Cheap too 😊

 

[sbloom]

Does the Mattes pad make it unstable? Have you trimmed the shims back so that they taper from the back edge? If you put in two or more full sized ones they will leave a pivot and pressure point in the middle. I trim at least 1" off the second shim and at least 2" off the third shim so that they make a wedge from back to front.

If it is still unstable and too lifted in the middle then you can shorten the shims from the back even more, or you can get a cotton version. I don't recommend anything other than Mattes, downsides with all the others.

 

[Abacus]

I bought a prolite front riser on the advice of my saddler as my saddle was a touch wide - it had a horrible effect of making the saddle feel very unstable, as if it was rolling sideways. So I wouldn't recommend that one.

 

[Casey76]

Thanks everyone. In the end I bought an unbranded correction half pad. It looks exactly the same as the Mattes, but it is cotton quilt only, with the 4 pockets, and it came with some very thin (4mm) memory foam shims.

I removed them from the back, and added extra memory foam shims to the front, and I'm experimenting with it today.

sbloom, the full sheepskin, even with the spinefree element just made the saddle unstable in all directions, front to back and side to side - but not surprising really as both my ponies have tabletops for backs, and normally I ride with only a thin cotton quite type cloth underneath the saddle - to protect the saddle, more than anything else.