New Toy. The "Filzsattel"

Basically my new toy is another glorified bareback pad. This one is made (almost) entirely out of felt. A saddle made of felt. A "Filzsattel" (felt saddle).

I had high hopes for this one but after riding in it yesterday for the first time, I'm not so sure it gets to stay. More of that later. First of all, details of the thing.

When I unpacked it my first thought was: "Wow, that's kind of massive!" It seems to be well made and has quite a bit more padding than I'd expected.

The padding is not the same all throughout the pad. It's a bit thicker in the front and back and there's less padding where the saddles twist would be. Nice thinking.

This is it. The Filzsattel  "L'amour Skuggi Comfort".

"L'amour" means that this it's the high withers version, and I am very happy I went for that choice! "Skuggi" is the basic shape, and "Comfort" stands for the brown stripe of extra padding along the top.

 

 On the horse:

 

As you can see, there is no girth that goes across (or puts pressure on) the spine, no knee rolls or ways to attach stirrups. You can see how much padding there is in the front and back and that it has some nice spinal clearance.

It really looked promising but it didn't quite hold up to that promise.

As you know, I have been riding Crispin bareback for about 6 months now. I just throw on the Christ Sheepskin Pad (the one with the one inch foam inlays) no girth or anything, and off we go. It works pretty well for us, only, once he starts really swinging through his back or when we canter more than once or twice the pad starts slipping. My hope was that the Filzsattel would work just as well with the added bonus of having a girth attached to it to keep it in place.

Well, unfortunately not. At first it felt really nice. The "narrow" twist (remember, less padding in that area) made it easier for me to let my legs drape around Crispin (a good feeling on that barrel shaped pony) and the padding felt nice too. A little more than what the other pad offers but not that much more. But once I started trotting, things fell apart. I bounced! And badly! I never have that issue with the other pad. It was very uncomfortable for me (and for Crispin too, I expect!). Also the Filzsattel slipped back quite a bit. I had to get off and put it back in position.

On a positive note though, I can really canter with the Filzsattel! I did most of the cantering after putting the pad back in place and once I got off after the ride the pad seemed to have stayed in place then.

This is the position of the Filzsattel after my ride. It didn't seem to have slipped again (I did not put the girth on any tighter than I had before).

So, for now I'm not sure what to think. I probably just have to ride in the Filzsattel again, maybe take a video, and figure out what's going on. Maybe it's the type of padding, maybe it just puts me into the wrong spot on Crispin's back...


 ...will see...