wintec with cair.

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burgetahn

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hi i've just bought a wintec with cair for my veteran horse. i've heard some people don't like the cair system and perfered flocked. any comments please.
 
hello,
i had a wintec with cair for my old pony as he had back problems and i thought it would be kinder, but i had to get rid of it about a year later as it made him very sore. Obviously it is different for other horses but i have an albion now and it is much better, and my wintec has been at the saddlers for sale for over 2 years nobody has bought it! I personally don't rate them.
 
I asked my saddler about air flocking..

she asked me what bouncy balls were filled with (Clue- answer, air!)

Thus why would you want your saddle bouncing along on your horses back?

Having said that though there are enough people out there that love their cair/flair saddles
 
Agree with what's been said, I don't feel it can really sit onto my mare's back as well as flocking. Its like a balloon filled with water will sort of flatten onto the floor, and have a large surface area on the floor, but a balloon filled with air will only have a small surface area on the floor. I found it moved about a lot on her back too. But as ponypatter said, there are a lot of people who see benefits in a cair/flair saddle.
 
I bought a second hand wintec with cair a year or so ago for my veteran as I thought it would be less weight than my leather saddle. I was also fed up with my leather saddle getting wet all the time. (We were having alot of rain at the time.) I like the cair and it doesn't seem to move around on my horse. I don't like the synthetic stirrup leathers though - I find them hard to alter and bulky.
 
My saddler says Cair is the best thing for young horses' backs. My youngster certainly seems to be fine in it. It's not as bouncy as a bouncy castle, it's only a little softer than flock, but, the air can move so it just offers a bit more protection during the stride as the back changes shape. That's just my opinion. I hope to go to an Albion after this, once he's stopped changing shape, and I've heard good and bad things about those too. I think it's a case of trial and error for each individual horse/rider.
 
I totally agree with BeckyD! Flair and Cair saddles are usually softer than flocked saddles and the air can move within the pad, reducing pressure points. It is not like a bouncy ball or a balloon resting on the floor. The air pockets are inside a foam pocket and then the leather of the saddle, so the comparison with a bolloon resting on the floor is irrelevant.
Have a look at the Flair website at the pressure readings taken of a horse cantering in a Flair and a conventionally flocked saddle if you want to see how it works. And no, I'm not an agent, I have had 2 Flaired saddles for my horse and think the system is great. I agree if the air pockets are pumped right up then they are very hard, but that is not how they are designed to work.
 
Yup, like mine - and so have the couple of horses its been on, more to the point! (both green and changing shapes/ways of going). Have watched others ride in it, and wouldn't know it wasn't flocked to be honest.
 
I hate cair/flair. It does not move with the horse at all - not like a traditionally wool flocked saddle.

However, you dont say what breed your horse is, or mention his conformation. I personally do not like wintecs on anything other than a true TB type, otherwise the banana shape of the tree just rock back and forth.

If I were going for a synthetic I would prefer a thorowgood, and indeed I used one for my youngster before I fitted his SC dressage for him.
 
Oh that's interesting, when I asked my saddler about Albions she said they're designed to fit the TB back the same as Wintecs. Interesting to hear you say the Wintec's suitable for TB back as well. Fortunately my GG is pure TB.
 
the problem i've heard about, and found out for myself unfortunately, is not just the fact that the air bags are filled with air (although think of a crisp packet - fine until you put pressure on it, then it goes very hard), but that at some point the airbags have edges. i'm not sure about Cair, but with Flair there are 2 airbags per panel, so the saddler can raise or lower the front or back of the saddle, and the problems can be particularly bad where the airbags overlap. this makes a pressure area, right under your seat, the area of greatest downforce. my mare's lump, caused by this, took months to go away.
i wouldn't touch a flair or a cair, personally.
the idea of the balloon being filled with air and only having a small surface area in contact with the ground is daft, and of no help at all - a bouncy castle is also filled with air...!
wink.gif
 
I have to say that after thinking about this for a while I would not have a cair or flair saddle. If you had a pad of something that was filled with air and you dropped something on it, the item would bounce and would not absorb the impact. If you the same items filled with flocking, there would be less bounce because the impact has been absorbed...which is what you want when you are riding...
 
As someone else has pointed out already, they are not only filled with air, they have a percentage of flocking too. In my honest opinion i love them, i have two saddles exactly the same, except one is cair and one is traditional (its the wintec 500) and i much prefer my cair. But the particualrly nice thing about cair is that the saddle can be very easily adjusted to the horses individual back, it therefore should depend on the indidividual horse just how hard you have the panels pumped up, find a saddler experienced in fitting cair saddles i would say... as maybe this is the issue with people experiencing 'bouncing'. Having said that, ive seen flocking saddles bouncing many a time before, it is usually because it is too tight for the horse.
 
I think the main thing that we can all get from this thread is that not all saddles will fit every horse - even if they are "adjustable".

I do have a wintec with cair - and have never had a problem with it, and it fits my anglo arab x mare really nicely. I find the saddle comfortable, and it suits the work that we do.
However, on another horse I have a flocked saddle - and that fits that horse.
I think if the saddle is well fitted by an experienced saddle fitted - "job's a goodun"!!
 
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