Tack Tip - Clean Your Felt Saddle Pad

I have wrote about cleaning felt saddle pads awhile back, but it is a good topic for hot weather riding as the horse's sweat more and those saddle pads, wool felt, sheep skin or even the Neoprene rubber ones accumulate more dried salt from horse sweat and other gunk a lot easier.

While Neoprene is easier to clean, I just don't like Neoprene saddle pads or cinchas for that matter. The exception for me on a synthetic pad is the pad available from SaddleSkin because it removes the main objection on Neoprene pads and that is heat buildup. And while there are pads with holes, intended to release heat or prevent heat build up, I just don't think they work very well.

So if you are one of those Neoprene saddle pad user, you may want to give SaddleSkin a look - I think with it's air channels it allows much more air flow and does reduce heat buildup, as well as absorb or attenuate trauma (impact) to the horse's back, it also keeps the saddle from slipping when the horse is really sweated up.

Having said all that, I pretty much exclusively use felt pads. Previously I used a wide variety of felt pads including the Impact Gel pads, but nowdays I use CSI pads. CSI offers a rubber curry brush to use to brush and clean their pads however it doesn't work very well for me as it's not stiff enough to scrap the dried sweat and hair from the pad.

After a ride, I'll let the felt pad air dry, then usually as I'm saddling up for the next ride, I'll slap the pad across the sides of the trailer or a tie rail to loosen up the dirt and junk, then lay the pad upside down on my horses' backs or a saddle stand and lightly scrub the dried hair and sweat from the pad using a metal curry brush. If you brush too hard you will tear up the felt, so brush lightly using the teeth or flat edge of the curry brush. I'll run my hand over the pad to ensure there aren't any crusty, sharp patches that can make the weight of a saddle and rider bearing on the horse's back uncomfortable, then I'll take a soft brush and brush away any loose dirt, salt or hair.

There are several products that are offered to help clean felt saddle pads. While I'm sure they work to clean and disinfect, I haven't used any soap type product on my felt pads in probably 10 years.

If you haven't cleaned your pad lately, take a look at it and see if you would want a patch of dried sweat (basically salt) being rubbed across your back. You can see the sweat (salt) buildup on the pad in the picture at right. If the salt build up if not cleaned would be running on the horse's back and loins when the weight of the saddle and rider is applied and more so as the saddle normally twists somewhat during riding.

One more point is that if you can afford to do so, have a saddle pad to each horse rather than use the same pad for multiple horses. This pays off not just to reduce any skin contamination from horse to horse, but also allows you to have the best pad for fit on each horse.

Review of CSI Saddle Pad

Having worn out a couple Impact Gel saddle pads, I was looking to buy another good saddle pad. I have used about every type of saddle pad,...sheepskin lined, felt, and even neoprene saddle pads, which I used under a blanket and mostly for arena roping. I never liked the neoprene pads and how they build up heat under the saddle no matter how many air holes they had.

I did work with SaddleSkin, in developing a saddle pad from a non-natural material that is the same Cooling and Trauma Attenuation material and design that is used between body armor and the user's clothing, to reduce trauma from bullet impact to body armor being absorbed by the body, as well as to provide a cooling effect to the skin surface. The SaddleSkin worked as advertised, protecting the horse's back and keeping the Horse's back cooler through air channels and holes. I also found that the SaddleSkin also kept the saddle from slipping.   However, I just really like felt pads, so I was looking to get a felt pad replacement.

I have known about CSI Saddle Pads for a couple years now, but the price kind of put me off, so after a couple of months of getting used to the idea of spending that much money, I finally ordered one directly from CSI.

Much like the Impact Gel Saddle Pads, which uses a gel pad in between layers of felt to absorb and reduce trauma to the horse's back, the CSI Saddle pads uses what they call a "flex plate" to dissipate trauma from pressure of the saddle's bars on the horse's back. The flex plate is visible in the photo at left.

The CSI Saddle Pad is actually a two piece pad. The bottom piece is a traditional felt pad, available in 1/2 inch or 3/4 inch thickness and a top piece that is automotive carpet sandwiched around the flex plate. There is a thin line of velcro sewn into the bottom spine of the top pad (flex plate) so that it can mate with the bottom felt pad and not slip. The photo at right shows the two layers and you can see that the bottom felt pad is relieved to reduce bulk for the front cinch.



Both pieces have air holes that line up and are designed to let heat escape the horses back.    The photo at left shows the air holes in the spine of the pad.  The bottom felt pad is reversible as well, extending the using life of this pad.  And as you can see from the two top photos, the CSI pad is formed for the withers.  It fit nicely on the three horses with varying wither heights that I tried it on.  I don't think anyone would be disappointed with a CSI Saddle Pad.


CSI hosts a series of videos    on saddle fit, horse balance, back and health issues. In the video below, Rhonda Martin discusses how saddle fit affects the function of the horse.