Listening while I work and I'll watch later. Therapeutic Horse Program starts again this month for the Vets and...I refused to use a picture of a horse w halter or blanket in pasture on their calendar. Have a great day! Laural
Raleigh did a video fairly recently where abused trail horses were being saddled with multiple pads to either protect their protruding spine and withers or to hide it because they were starving, I feel like if I saw a horse being ridden in many saddle pads it would make me suspicious
I ride an Aussie saddle and it is pretty thick itself so I use a thin saddle pad that seems to work well. But I’ll keep an eye on her to make sure I don’t make her sore. Thank you so much for your videos Rick, they are very informative.
Thank you Rick very informative I'm glad that people that actually want to learn have a source of information like your channel its helped me a great deal
Good video. Whenever I get a new horse "which I only get 1 if 1 gets to old to ride" but whenever I get a new horse I'll spend a ton of time making sure its comfortable and fits great for the horse.
Also, I've heard it said that more pads are not any better than more socks when a shoe is uncomfortable. A saddle needs to fit a horse like a comfortable pair of shoes. And it needs to fit the person too. It is not a given that one saddle fits every horse.
Good info. I've been watching lots of lion vids and it is so interesting how they are so like cats. Smokey has great cat eyes. He stays close because you are part of his pride. :-)
We use a lamb skin saddle pad with an equigel gel pad on top then the saddle on top of that. Lamb skin is fur side down to wick away sweat and the gel pad absorbs impacts and both together relieve any pressure points on the horses back
Great info Rick!! I’d love to see a video on saddle fot for rounder horses-my little girl is naturally wide woth no real withers to speak of so EVERYTHING rotates and slides around on her...I don’t know what fits!
1/4” wool pad under Navajo or 3/4” wool pad. The 1/4” are cheap to replace and the 3/4” lasts forever!!! Wool gathers hair and hair to hair creates very little friction also.
Makes great sense to me. WONDER how many people do this wrong. I'd be checking my saddles now if I were them. Great information as usual. Think what is best for your horse not you.
Thank you so much for this one! I have a round gaited horse that is so hard to fit. I do the best that I can. I do remember hearing you say to push that saddle blanket up under the cantle. Thank you for the good info! It sticks!
Oh Smokey, are you dreaming sweet dreams? Little guy, you look so peaceful, curled up in Dad's chair. What a nice sleeping place you have found. Is it warm and cosy? You hear Dad talking, you smell him, so everything is just fine, nothing to worry about. Life is beautiful. :-)
LOL poor smokey trying to sleep. thanks rick! i'm curious know to pick your brain more about horse riding gear. also would like to see more vids of u riding them and sharing advice. do u still ride Mr T?
Now they make everything to sell you more as well. I have a completely wool pad like you are showing at 1in with the cut out for the withers and all. What they make is saddle pad liners because if your saddle pad is slipping you must need a liner for it. They have ones where you insert the shims into the pad so you can make the pad fit any horse or make the saddle you have fit most horses if you simply shim it right. They have gel filled ones like Dr. Scholl's foot insoles gel liners, but the gel lines under your saddle where you sit. They have anti-slip ones for those "rounder" horses. The gimmicks are simply endless with the amount of saddle pads out there.
Those saddle pads are pretty. The top is kind of a fuchsia or magenta. A contoured saddle pad, yeah, Rick, I imagine, that would be more comfortable for a horse. As for the question of how many pads, what if you have a swaybacked horse. Not too bad of a swayback, but, when I had Buttercup, was swaybacked, and she needed to saddle pads, but now, I've heard of some kind of therapeutic saddle pad for swayback horses. I just thought I'd share that a bit with you. Oh, Rick, if I'd known then, what I know now about bits, I'd have been riding her in a rope halter. Ahh, but hindsight is 20/20. My goodness, I wish I had you for a friend, way back when you and were teen. We'd have made good friends. I'm learning a lot from you.
Hi Rick, I always make sure to pull up the saddle pad before tightening the cinche, but it tends to ride down again and I'm afraid that might put pressure on the withers then. Any ideas what causes this? (Also it's not my horse or equipment, so I just gotta trust the owner and saddler that everything fits)
you can't really do anything about it. It goes down because horse and saddle moves just like properly fitted saddle might slide back when galloping on a horse.
I have a nice thick curved cutback. I paid $70 for it and its 18 years old. best saddle pad. the wool wicks away moisture and forms to the horses back. i used it 5 times a week. My mare was a swayback and it took me a while to find the right pad. i also had to buy a bridging pad when I changed up my saddle.
Different for every horse, and saddle :) I have a go to pad... that usually does ok with every horse. But you just learn over time what works best imo... the less blankets you can use the better?! Now I'll watch the video and see what Rick has to say...lol
Ya I like the 1" pads. If I ever use a pad that's a little less than 1" I like to use a thin wool nice comfortable blanket on top of the pad. Almost like your red blanket. I personally don't care if my ass isn't that comfortable. My 1st concerns are the horse
Great video,,, I see too many or too thick a pad all the time with people trying to compensate for poor fit,,,,BIG MISTAKE for the horse. Now because the saddle is essentially "floating" and NOT sitting down in the "pocket" of the horses back, they compensate by cinching up way tighter than what is comfortable for the horse,,,,,,,,,,then they eventually come to me and want their "cinchy" horse with a poor or aggressive attitude fixed.
If you do not weigh much then short duration bareback riding is fine. If longer riding, put a couple of pads together to make it comfortable for the horse's back.
I have one of those thick wool pads. Don’t ride nearly often enough - though he’s not my horse. Anyway the last couple times I rode, horse had a visible sore spot at back end of pad. Anyone have any suggestions on how to avoid this?
What about English pads/saddles? The pads are thinner but the saddle is smaller, lighter and fits differently to the horses back, so would you need as thick a pad as Western? I ride English and always thought those pads were too thin, so I use two normal pads and a half pad. Would that be too little/much or do you think it's alright? Also, my horse has really big withers if that has anything to do with pad thickness.
Wool is great because it absorbs sweat and I believe it keeps the horse's back cooler. It is very important to keep it clean though. Some people use a wool blanket under their expensive wool pad to keep it cleaner. I only use 5 Star wool pads. Expensive , but worth every penny. I use 100 % mohair cinches as well
DorienWKS // WildKAT you need to watch a video on how to measure a horses gullet then that should match up to how to fit your saddle and what size gullet you need on your saddle if that makes sense
Hey Rick! So I've been riding my horse bareback lately, and he's quite of shape, not bad enough to not be ridden though! So anyway, what's a good way to get some fat off of him, and also to get his belly to not stick out so much. Would you know of some good excersizes to help lose weight, and help that hay belly? Thank you in advance! :)
Brando,,what are you feeding and how many times a day????It has been my experience that more meals of smaller portions can be helpful. Also often times some horses are just easy keepers and need a less calorie dense feed. A lower grade of hay and using a nibble net can be helpful. What I am trying top say is that there is no one size fits all answer, it all depends on how and what you are currently feeding , how much exercise your horse gets, his age, etc... to effectively plan a diet. Hope this helps
nothing smells better to me than a tack room or the smell of a horse,,,,lol. seriously though, if you rinse your pad with a hose after you ride and then lay it upside down to air out and dry before you bring it in you will not have a problem, this also prevents bacteria etc....from forming
Haha that's exactly what my dad says.we got educated at a young age about guns, and whenever someone would ask why his gun was out he would tell them "waiting for some a##%^&= to come walking through my door uninvited " lol. Great video, wish some people would actually "try" to do right by their horses. See to many"know it alls" who go around bashing people who are actually trying to do things the right way"
Well, here in Europe guns are not a common part of your family's property so I have no knowledge bout them whatsoever. Damn I couldn't even shoot myself if I wanted to.
In reality you only really need one saddle pad the saddle blankets are really just for decoration I dont know who does two or more saddle pads that is to much
At major stables where lessons are given I know trainers/owners and a few individual owners who sadly larned from the trainer where a horse has diagnosed back issues like kissing spine or a pelvic injury where sitting and having pressure on their lower back causes pain and many times back issues or back and even shoulder pain will attempt to be covered with more "padding". The pony with kissing spine bucked when too much pressure was applied by the rider in certain places on her back so instead of accepting the pony has a medical issue, just add more padding so no rider can "bounce" on the bad spot on her back and make her buck. This is a common approach some people take to back pain and back issues. Some know what they are doing is wrong, others have simply been taught the wrong things. It's also a common approach for poor saddle fit as saddles are expensive so you simply add more padding to make the saddle fit the horse by reshaping their back with padding whether gel that conforms or shims that can be put in and taken out of the saddle pad. Cheaper to get a saddle pad or two than a new saddle.
