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Dawn Carrie:
> ...I've been using...a Barefoot Cheyenne treeless...
> [which] doesn't have the side-to-side movement in the
> back that the Sport Saddle did.

I used to ride in a Sportsaddle, but bought a Barefoot for
my short-backed mare because she was getting loin rubs.

Haven't actually been riding that mare (of course), but have
been riding my new guy in it. After our first 50 together a
couple of weeks ago, I noticed that he's starting to get loin
rubs also <sigh>. He's thin skinned, like Ned, plus he just
came up from Arizona a couple of months ago and has virtually
no hair (comparatively speaking). He doesn't have scurfing,
just thinning hair.

Sportsaddles always seemed to cause loin rubs in the Spring
and Summer - with the change of coat - so Patti, it's possible
that Ned's problem will go away with the change in seasons
(<yeah, right> she said unconvinced).

I was using a Skito pad, but with a synthetic wool blend on
the underside. I have a Woolback that is pure wool, so could
switch to that, but am thinking it may not solve the problem,
since I seem to remember Tom at Skito telling me that the
natural wool "gripped" the coat better than the synthetic,
so the saddle didn't slip around. 'Course, that might also
mean it "grips" the coat nicely and breaks it off. :(

My current idea is to try *VERY* careful application of
ShowSheen on *JUST* the loin area (thinking I'll apply
it with a cloth and wait carefully for it to dry before
touching his back again, to make sure I don't smear it).
Not sure how slippery ShowSheen is when sweaty, however?

The idea of baby-powder seems good, but I worry that once
it gets wet and slick it'll attract crud and you'll end up
with a sludgy mess. Steph?

(I know that my guy's dam is also thin-skinned and watched
his rider put baby powder on her splint boots and cinch when
tacking her up during the 50-mile hold of a 100).

It'd be interesting to hear from any (Sportsaddle) riders
who had loin rub problems cured by using an Equipedic pad
(thinking - is Ned's soreness caused by heat from friction?
or just from friction?)

Another thought - d'you have a cantle pack on the back of
the saddle? If so, maybe ditch that to make the back of
the saddle lighter? I did this with the Barefoot saddle
because it seemed too floppy to support a cantle pack.
Instead I bought one of those deluxe-giant-pommel bags
that you can fit a trunk-load of things in (and I don't
get cramp turning around to try and get things out of the
cantle pack any more).

And another-another thought - using center-fire rigging
on the saddle will cause the back of the saddle to be more
snugged down on his back. Might be worth switching back to
normal rigging (I know, I know, it makes the saddle less
stable) and perhaps try different cinches, if arm-pit rubbing
was one of the reasons you were using that style rigging in
the first place? (Patti's probably grinding her teeth, thinking
she'll solve the loin rub problem, but cause an armpit rub
problem instead). Or experiment with different length cinches,
to make the V of the cinch-strap pull at different angles and
put pressure on the back of the saddle in a different way?

Please let us know what you find out - it'll be interesting
hear your experiments in trying to solve the problem.


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Lucy Chaplin Trumbull
elsietee AT foothill DOT net
Repotted english person in the Sierra foothills, California
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