Why do you use a sheepskin half pad?

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Kezzabell2

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Just Curious as to people's reasons?

Because you like them? To help the saddle fit better?

Also if your saddle has been fitted to a standard saddle cloth. Do you get it refitted to ensure its not too tight With a half pad?
 
I use one on mine. It lifts the saddle slightly, but i really like that it's a bit of a 'shock absorber' for if they put in a dodgy one when we are jumping, I don't bang onto their backs
 
I use one with mine too, for the same reasons as above when jumping, but for flatwork I've popped it back on as we'll be moving up to medium soon so I'm doing a lot more sitting trot and so like a bit more of a 'shock absorber' for that too :o.

The saddle's (jump and dressage) were fitted to take this into consideration but it also depends on time of year and her weight/muscle mass. I'm not too shabby at saddle fit now and in any regard Topaz lets me know if something is wrong, after we went through 3 saddle fitters with her last dressage saddle as the first two said it fits when she said it didn't ;), it was the last fitter who I learnt a lot of important fitting knowledge from.

With the oldie her saddle has always been fine without, but I used a discreet half pad to show with on its own. I've now added that + saddlepad as she's lost a touch of top line, but I will be getting the saddle fitter back out as she shouldn't need it, the saddle just needs a bit of re-flocking.

x x
 
Protection for my horse, I have a slightly twisted hip so don't sit too level and am not as gentle in the seat as I once was but also as above if jumping to provide some shock absorbing for my horses back, I still liked them when I was able to ride better just in case horse did something (tripped / bucked) that might cause me to land on his back hard I like knowing that my gell-eze sheepskin pad is there to absorb the shock. I always have my saddles fitted on the wider side to allow for these pads and any minimal filling out due to his changeable work loads / time of year weight changes etc there always changing slightly and id rather my saddle a bit wide than be pinching him as its never so wide it drops down on his withers without a pad and the pad can always fill and slight gap but if its too tight theres nothing can do other than change or re-fit the saddle. and in my 20years of riding and fitting my own saddles I have never had a horse with a back problem and they see the EBW annually as precaution and will be called out any time I suspect there's anything bothering my horse (this Is usually because they've tweaked a muscle somewhere honing around the field like an ijit!)
 
My sheepskin also has shims inside. I was using a Prolite but changed to this as he was getting bare rub marks at the back of his saddle. Its also easier to fit as already attached to the saddle rather than fussing with several layers. I've never liked Sheepskin but I really like the fit and feel of this.
 
It disapates heat and absorbs sweat. It shock absorbs and massively reduces friction. It's always warm and soft against the skin even straight off the peg on cold days. It makes the saddle fit the tiniest bit narrower ( may saddle was fitted a smidge too wide for that reason). And it stops all rubbing on my very thin skinned ISH (he's pretty much covered nose to tail in dead sheep)
 
Kallibear said:
It disapates heat and absorbs sweat. It shock absorbs and massively reduces friction. It's always warm and soft against the skin even straight off the peg on cold days. It makes the saddle fit the tiniest bit narrower ( may saddle was fitted a smidge too wide for that reason). And it stops all rubbing on my very thin skinned ISH (he's pretty much covered nose to tail in dead sheep)
Click to expand...

I agree, and use one the same as above. My pony has terrible white scarring in his saddle area from a terribly fitted saddle before I bought him. I have over come serious mounting issues with him and I feel he is more comfortable with one on. The saddle fitter fits his saddle slightly wider to accommodate the pad.

Completely aside, I think they look smart too. Pony is very short coupled and can looked swamped in a numnah or saddle pad. The colour matched his mane and tail :)
 
Shims are inserts of variable depth so you can adjust the fitting whilst using a single saddle cloth.
 
Because my saddler told me to use one so my saddle fits nicer, also I like the idea of fluffy squashy comfyness under the saddle. They also look nice!
 
It was once explained to me that using a thick numnah under a correctly fitted saddle is the same as us wearing thick towelling socks with stilettoes ��. If u use anything more than a thin numnah / saddlecloth (with a correctly fitting saddle) then you are altering the fit if the saddle. I feel in many cases they are a fashion statement, as surely half the horse population can't all be wearing sheepskin half pads to help saddles which don't quite fit correctly
 
All of our saddles are fitted with a half pad . Ponies are working hard & often kids are vaulting on & off .
Perfect shock absorber .
 
Notimetoride said:
It was once explained to me that using a thick numnah under a correctly fitted saddle is the same as us wearing thick towelling socks with stilettoes ��. If u use anything more than a thin numnah / saddlecloth (with a correctly fitting saddle) then you are altering the fit if the saddle. I feel in many cases they are a fashion statement, as surely half the horse population can't all be wearing sheepskin half pads to help saddles which don't quite fit correctly
Click to expand...

But if you bought the shoes to fit your feet plus the thick socks, think how much more comfortable that would be! Nothing wrong with extra padding as long as the saddle is fitted to take account of it.
 
Anything else rubs him only thing I have found not to are le mieux lambskin pads. Bonus is that it looks nice as well and saddle is fitted with it so no issue.
 
Because at certain times of year a normal numnah or saddle pad rubs her coat out.

And because it looks neat for hunting and showing (everything else I use a square pad because I struggle to get numnahs that are the right shape) .
 
Notimetoride said:
It was once explained to me that using a thick numnah under a correctly fitted saddle is the same as us wearing thick towelling socks with stilettoes ��. If u use anything more than a thin numnah / saddlecloth (with a correctly fitting saddle) then you are altering the fit if the saddle. I feel in many cases they are a fashion statement, as surely half the horse population can't all be wearing sheepskin half pads to help saddles which don't quite fit correctly
Click to expand...

I think this is a really unhelpful metaphor, though oft repeated. A shoe is a closed container with a volume inside it, not comparable to a saddle which is more like a rucksack with a structure in it like a rucksack frame (if you have to find a metaphor, not that it's relevant when talking about padding).

A thick pad such as sheepskin, if well designed and in most cases, will simply lift the front of the saddle more than the back. It is actually really easy to feel if it's making anything tight - press on the pommel or girth the saddle up and gently run your hand, with palm and fingertips against the horse, from pommel down to below the points and feel what the horse feels, you should get a good idea if it is pinching. Proceed with caution, the odd horse doesn't like this being done, tha vast majority are fine and personally I think you need to learn to feel what your horse is feeling.

A well designed pad, under most saddles and on most horses, is cut away at the gullet and will not cause pressure. What it will do is very slightly tip the saddle back therefore the fit should be either very slightly wider, or lightly flocked at the front, than it otherwise would be for a thin pad. For instance if you use a sheepskin for showing then you should be using a similar thickness pad every day or your saddle will be very slightly low or wide or both in front. So tipping back is one possible symptom of a saddle being too narrow, it does not actually mean that adding a sheepskin makes your saddle to narrow.

Sheepskin is awesome stuff, it absorbs more concussion than can flocking or foam on its own, and unlike flocking it bounces back. For this reason it is brilliant for remedial fitting where muscle loss is present (especially with shims where needed) but also for very heavy riders who can really compress flocking fast. It absorbs sweat really well, so is useful in summer, not just winter, and it's why many endurance riders use them, changing them once or twice on longer rides.

Showjumpers use them partly for fashion but there is also a specific reason for using them with a jump saddle. Because of the forward nature of the flap it sill sit across the shoulder blade, if there is a slight lack of shape/muscle behind the shoulder blade then the flap has to really come up and out to get over it, and it will restrict the shoulder. A thick half pad will lift the saddle up and back, giving more clearance on the shoulder.

If I had a horse I would fit my saddles to be used with a sheepskin, and in my opinion the real deal is British sheepskin, not merino lambskin which is a good product but to my mind not much different to shorn wool sewn into a knitted backing.
 
My boy has muscle wastage (due to lack of use) so a shimmed sheepskin half pad lets me allow for this whilst making it easy to adjust whilst he builds up.
 
Lol SBloom if I could add to your rep I would do, but it says I have to spread it around more before I can click your star again! That is such a helpful & clear response. Personally I don't use a half pad if I can help it, I have mattes numnahs with shims instead so the sheepskin is against the skin.

Do you think specifically having a half pad adds a pressure point? as in a line where the pad crosses the panel? Or am I worrying over nothing?
 
A half pad really is no different to having a half lined pad as you have. Because the weightbearing area of the saddle ends at the points then in the vast majority of cases a half lining or half pad won't cause any pressure issues whatsoever, I have yet to see a horse made sore because of one. I do occasionally see saddle slippage from using my Mattes correction half pad on saddle fits, with nothing under, a half lined numnah usually corrects that.
 
I use one because ben loves them, ive had people sit on him and say straight away he feels like he's about to buck, I have to explain to them that he isn't, his back just kind of comes up to greet the saddle under a half pad, he just loves the feel of it, he rides so nicely anyway but when he has a half pad the difference is quite amazing.
 
Because my saddle is a monoflap/close contact, it recuces impact/concussion on her back if either of us get it wrong, and she is currently lacking in topline.

Plus..its lovely and fluffy.
 
sbloom said:
I think this is a really unhelpful metaphor, though oft repeated. A shoe is a closed container with a volume inside it, not comparable to a saddle which is more like a rucksack with a structure in it like a rucksack frame (if you have to find a metaphor, not that it's relevant when talking about padding).

A thick pad such as sheepskin, if well designed and in most cases, will simply lift the front of the saddle more than the back. It is actually really easy to feel if it's making anything tight - press on the pommel or girth the saddle up and gently run your hand, with palm and fingertips against the horse, from pommel down to below the points and feel what the horse feels, you should get a good idea if it is pinching. Proceed with caution, the odd horse doesn't like this being done, tha vast majority are fine and personally I think you need to learn to feel what your horse is feeling.

A well designed pad, under most saddles and on most horses, is cut away at the gullet and will not cause pressure. What it will do is very slightly tip the saddle back therefore the fit should be either very slightly wider, or lightly flocked at the front, than it otherwise would be for a thin pad. For instance if you use a sheepskin for showing then you should be using a similar thickness pad every day or your saddle will be very slightly low or wide or both in front. So tipping back is one possible symptom of a saddle being too narrow, it does not actually mean that adding a sheepskin makes your saddle to narrow.

Sheepskin is awesome stuff, it absorbs more concussion than can flocking or foam on its own, and unlike flocking it bounces back. For this reason it is brilliant for remedial fitting where muscle loss is present (especially with shims where needed) but also for very heavy riders who can really compress flocking fast. It absorbs sweat really well, so is useful in summer, not just winter, and it's why many endurance riders use them, changing them once or twice on longer rides.

Showjumpers use them partly for fashion but there is also a specific reason for using them with a jump saddle. Because of the forward nature of the flap it sill sit across the shoulder blade, if there is a slight lack of shape/muscle behind the shoulder blade then the flap has to really come up and out to get over it, and it will restrict the shoulder. A thick half pad will lift the saddle up and back, giving more clearance on the shoulder.

If I had a horse I would fit my saddles to be used with a sheepskin, and in my opinion the real deal is British sheepskin, not merino lambskin which is a good product but to my mind not much different to shorn wool sewn into a knitted backing.
Click to expand...

Please read this article on saddle fitting http://www.eurodressage.com/equestrian/2012/12/03/about-saddle-fitting-part-1-fitting-saddle-horse
 
Hoof_Prints said:
Because my saddler told me to use one so my saddle fits nicer, also I like the idea of fluffy squashy comfyness under the saddle. They also look nice!
Click to expand...

Ouch if your saddle fits you defiantly don't need one what a bazar saddler to say that doesn't sound like he's fitted the saddle to the horse atoll.
 
Probably because peoples saddles don't fit so they try and pad them up as much as possible to think that the saddle does fit, they can be used for remedial saddlery though. And people believe they are shock absorbing would like to see the research?

Often seen in a lot of showjumpers when they use the same saddle for lots of horses and pad them up to convince themselves the saddle fit.
 
It's fashion . If your saddle fits properly you don't need one and if your saddle doesn't fit spend the 80 quid on getting it to fit rather than a pad...
 
AlexHyde said:
I use one with mine too, for the same reasons as above when jumping, but for flatwork I've popped it back on as we'll be moving up to medium soon so I'm doing a lot more sitting trot and so like a bit more of a 'shock absorber' for that too :o.

The saddle's (jump and dressage) were fitted to take this into consideration but it also depends on time of year and her weight/muscle mass. I'm not too shabby at saddle fit now and in any regard Topaz lets me know if something is wrong, after we went through 3 saddle fitters with her last dressage saddle as the first two said it fits when she said it didn't ;), it was the last fitter who I learnt a lot of important fitting knowledge from.

With the oldie her saddle has always been fine without, but I used a discreet half pad to show with on its own. I've now added that + saddlepad as she's lost a touch of top line, but I will be getting the saddle fitter back out as she shouldn't need it, the saddle just needs a bit of re-flocking.

x x
Click to expand...

Who do you use for a fitter Alex? If you don't mind me asking? I believe your fairly local to me. Also who to avoid! Pm If you prefer xx
 
MILLGREENLADY said:
Ouch if your saddle fits you defiantly don't need one what a bazar (bizarre?)saddler to say that doesn't sound like he's fitted the saddle to the horse atoll (at all).
Click to expand...

Or, if you bothered to read other people's replies, the saddle was maybe fitted WITH a sheepskin pad. My saddle, like many people', was fitted with a sheepskin and if I used it without it'd be a little wide and low at the front.
 
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