What is the point of a saddle pad?

They come in all shapes, sizes and colours but what is their actual purpose?

A saddle cloth is really just to protect the saddle, sweat can break down the fabric of the leather.

It makes cleaning easier,  will soak up the sweat and of course they look good.

A saddle pad should help to distribute the pressure that is created by the saddle and rider. It should also act as a shock absorber.

Of course if the saddle is a perfect fit then in theory a saddle pad shouldn’t be necessary. The problem is that as the horse grows or develops muscle through training they will constantly change shape. Few of us can’t afford to change our saddles every couple of months. You could use an ultra thin pressure mat that contains hundreds of sensors that link via bluetooth to a computer to calculate the peak pressure points but not many of us can afford one of those either!

So how do we know if we need a saddle pad?

One most obvious sign is behavior.  Bucking, swishing the tail and pinning the ears back are all indications that the horse has some discomfort. Look for areas where the hair is ruffled, tender spots or worse, sores. Imagine lying on a bed of nails, if the bed had only one nail it would be very uncomfortable to say the least, however, if the bed had a couple of thousand nails it wouldn’t be that bad. That’s because the pressure is spread evenly over the whole area and not just on one peak pressure point.

Our Therapeutic saddle pad uses a high density memory foam, proven by health experts to reduce pressure sores. Reacting to body temperature it softens on contact with the horse's skin. Being pressure sensitive it moulds to the exact contours of the spine filling in all the little gaps between the horse and saddle. This spreads the weight of the saddle and rider evenly helping to eliminate pressure points and absorbing shock.

Whilst we would never recommend using a saddle that doesn’t fit our Therapeutic saddle pad will help to avoid some of the stresses put on the skeletal and muscular systems incurred during exercise.