Prince33Sp4rkle
Well-Known Member
this is driving me mental!
have had this prob with CS for a while and am 99% certain its his shape but any ideas would be appreciated...
when i had him as a 4yo he was ridden in a Bates Innova with sheepskin between saddle and whatever pad was used. This worked fine, everything stayed where i put it and nothing moved.
as a 6yo he had obviously changed shape and the saddle started to slip back significantly, taking sheep and pad with it, so everything stayed aligned, but just a few inches too far back (particularly if he did any acrobatics...)
saddle checked,tweaked and re-checked and saddler, physio and horse all happy with saddle,but it kept on moving-started using a super thin gel pad between pad and horse and bingo-eveything stays in place again, horse happy.
12months down the line, horse is working more uphill, saddle is no longer working for me, and whilst sheep and saddle remain aligned, they are still slipping backwards together, off saddlecloth rear edge and the front of the saddlecloth is wrinkling up and doing all sorts of odd things, with or without the gel pad.
saddle gets changed and new one is fitted to accomodate a small gel riser and sheep pad (as after much experimentation, that is what horse seems to like).
initially use it it with very thin anti slip gel pad against horse but it becomes clear he doesnt like that set up with this saddle and the front edge of pads are STILL wrinkling up.
have tried going back to sheep and pad, no gel, no riser-everything moves back, then pad slips out from under saddle.
with gel riser ON TOP of pad, it all moves back a bit (but not too horrendously) but front edge of pad is wrinkling up-its like the top with section stays still, and the section near girth stays still, but the bit in the middle tries to move back so entire thing ends up wrinkled up.
horse is very happy, not sore and going great guns, saddler says its his confo-he does have ridiculously long shoulder blades..........and i am inclined to agree that the sheer range of movement of his shoulders pushes the pad back, because its attached at top and bottom only the middle can move, hence wrinkling up. He has obviously matured shape wise and is fairly hard fit, not carrying baby fat any more, hence i think why saddle never used to move, but does now.
its a mono flap saddle to complicate things, so most of my pads dont have a top attachment any more, but the gel riser pad keeps them stuck in place there anyway, and the girth attachment is the same, its the 4/5 inches between the 2 that tries to move, and then wrinkles.
am literlaly pullign my hair out. all i have left to try is a none riser gel pad and playing with only putting one girth strap through loop at bottom.
CS is completely happy with ANY ste up EXCEPT gel pad against skin, but thats a bit of a moot point as with or without gel on skin, the front edge wrinkles.
please god someone know how to stop this...........................
have had this prob with CS for a while and am 99% certain its his shape but any ideas would be appreciated...
when i had him as a 4yo he was ridden in a Bates Innova with sheepskin between saddle and whatever pad was used. This worked fine, everything stayed where i put it and nothing moved.
as a 6yo he had obviously changed shape and the saddle started to slip back significantly, taking sheep and pad with it, so everything stayed aligned, but just a few inches too far back (particularly if he did any acrobatics...)
saddle checked,tweaked and re-checked and saddler, physio and horse all happy with saddle,but it kept on moving-started using a super thin gel pad between pad and horse and bingo-eveything stays in place again, horse happy.
12months down the line, horse is working more uphill, saddle is no longer working for me, and whilst sheep and saddle remain aligned, they are still slipping backwards together, off saddlecloth rear edge and the front of the saddlecloth is wrinkling up and doing all sorts of odd things, with or without the gel pad.
saddle gets changed and new one is fitted to accomodate a small gel riser and sheep pad (as after much experimentation, that is what horse seems to like).
initially use it it with very thin anti slip gel pad against horse but it becomes clear he doesnt like that set up with this saddle and the front edge of pads are STILL wrinkling up.
have tried going back to sheep and pad, no gel, no riser-everything moves back, then pad slips out from under saddle.
with gel riser ON TOP of pad, it all moves back a bit (but not too horrendously) but front edge of pad is wrinkling up-its like the top with section stays still, and the section near girth stays still, but the bit in the middle tries to move back so entire thing ends up wrinkled up.
horse is very happy, not sore and going great guns, saddler says its his confo-he does have ridiculously long shoulder blades..........and i am inclined to agree that the sheer range of movement of his shoulders pushes the pad back, because its attached at top and bottom only the middle can move, hence wrinkling up. He has obviously matured shape wise and is fairly hard fit, not carrying baby fat any more, hence i think why saddle never used to move, but does now.
its a mono flap saddle to complicate things, so most of my pads dont have a top attachment any more, but the gel riser pad keeps them stuck in place there anyway, and the girth attachment is the same, its the 4/5 inches between the 2 that tries to move, and then wrinkles.
am literlaly pullign my hair out. all i have left to try is a none riser gel pad and playing with only putting one girth strap through loop at bottom.
CS is completely happy with ANY ste up EXCEPT gel pad against skin, but thats a bit of a moot point as with or without gel on skin, the front edge wrinkles.
please god someone know how to stop this...........................
The top stays still but the bottom moves backwards so it takes on like a werid superman cape type thing and pulls down on his withers. Weridly it happened with his Barnsby grip pad and the Anky pads but not with the thicker eskadron or the eurostar pads cos they are more rigid and thicker and have the girth loops. 
