Picking a Saddle Pad

When picking a saddle pad, make sure the pad has a contoured shape and is made from a natural, washable material. Choose the right saddle pad that fits the English saddle with helpful advice from a veterinarian in this video on caring for horses.

Hi, I'm Dr. Joanna Robson with Inspiritus Equine, Incorporated in Napa, California. I am a doctor of Veterinary medicine and I'd like to talk to you this morning about how to choose a correct saddle pad to go with your English saddle. This fleece saddle pad is a pretty common saddle pad. It's a synthetic fleece not natural sheep skin. However, it has a problem. The problem is it is not contoured which means it's flat. Straight across the top. When you put the saddle pad under your saddle on your horse's back, over time with riding, movement is going to cause the saddle pad to cinch down over the top of your horse's withers creating pressure and potentially rub sores. Though the material that it's made of is acceptable, easy care and easy to wash, this is not an acceptable saddle pad because it lacks a contoured shape. This saddle pad is an all purpose jumping pad, though they make close contact saddle pads and dressage saddle pads of the same material. Again it's also easy to wash and easy to take care of but this is an acceptable saddle pad because you can quite clearly see that it has a contoured wither relief shape. Which means that it provides space at the top of the saddle pad to accommodate for a horse with withers. These two saddle pads here are examples of saddle pads that are used to fix saddles that don't fit correctly. Therefore, if you have to use one of these pads, your saddle doesn't fit. However there is big differences between these two pads. The white foam saddle pad does have a correct contoured shape. It has a couple of air holes along the top to make it breathable so that it doesn't trap heat. But it also has what we call shoulder shims, which means that it's going to raise up your saddle in the front. The problem with this, is by raising the saddle up in the front only, potentially it tips the saddle back creating pain and pressure over your horse's low back. This black foam saddle pad is a high density close cell foam. As you can see it has absolutely no shape what so ever. When you place this saddle pad beneath your saddle, there's absolutely no contouring to allow for wither relief. It raises the entire saddle up off the horse's back. But it traps a lot of heat and sweat, which can create rub sores and damaging heat across your horse's muscles and top line. When choosing a correct saddle pad for your horse, number one most important thing, make sure that it has a contoured shape. Second thing make sure that it's a natural material either a washable cotton or a natural sheep skin pad. Third thing remember if you have to use a contoured pad or a close cell foam pad or a gel pad, most likely your saddle doesn't fit. Changing your socks will not help your shoes to fit any better.