I’ve done several saddle fittings for riders using
Supracor pads and I own one. I don’t use it very often because I do
prefer wool, but I won’t sell it because I do like the concept in the
right situation.
Here’s some things I’ve tried that help me
understand when I would want to use the pad and when not to. Go stand on
the pad in your bare feet on a hard surface like concrete. Wiggle your
toes around, rock your weight back and forth – feels great! Now
rock your weight back on your heels and just stand there for a while –
pretty soon you feel just you’re standing on the concrete.
So if you have a saddle that fits pretty well and just
slight shape changes as the horse moves, the cells squish/expand and provide
support and air flow and I think makes for a great pad situation.
If you have a pressure point that is constant the pad may
not be able to provide any relief and worse yet, the cells are squished down
completely, so there is no air flow and now you basically have a sheet of
plastic between the horse and saddle. This can create a lot of heat –
which may explain some of the skin flaking that people have seen.
The pads do also break down in time if there is a pressure
point. I have one client that dearly loves his supracor and his
saddle. The saddle fits his horse pretty well, but does have one area
that creates pressure when the horse moves. He never gets a sore spot,
the pad does seem to provide support for that pressure point, but the pad
breaks down at that spot and he buys a new one every couple of years.
Expensive, but he’s happy enough and hasn’t had any real problems.
So I don’t think there is any reason to say there is a
problem with the pad, but like most every other piece of tack, it works great
in some situations and not great in others. They seem to be great if the
saddle fits pretty well (but then at that point almost any pad would probably
work well!).
Hope that helps.
Marlene
Marlene
Moss
www.LosPinos-CO.com
- Boarding, Sales and More
www.KineticEquineAnalysis.com
- Saddle Fitting
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