Re: ortho-flex loin rubbing

["Susan Garlinghouse" <suendavid@worldnet.att.net>]

> jenni jenterp@prodigy.net
> Hello fellow riders.  I am writing with a question re: loin rubbing
> problem with my ortho-flex.  It is an express lite model and I got it used


I had a similar problem with both of our OFs when we first got them (new).
One is an Express (before they came out with the Express Lite) and the other
is a Patriot Officer's model for my husband.  In OUR case, I think part of
the situation was a time period in the panels settling into the shape of the
horse's back.  I know, they're flexible and supposedly don't do that, but I
think they do, at least in our case.  Sort of a breaking in period.

What we did in both cases was to girth up quite tight to help force the
saddle downward---maybe unnecessary in addition to just rider weight, but
that's what we did.  I was obsessive about keeping the booties spotlessly
clean, as dirt made the abrasion worse, obviously.  And, I had a rag that I
sprayed with Sho-Sheen (or Armor-All works just as well) and rubbed that
under the saddle in back where the rub was---that worked better than
spraying the whole saddle area with sho-sheen, as I found the saddle doing a
slow-motion backward slide if you get it too far forward. <vbg>

Anyway, between the bunch of things, the rubbing stopped fairly
soon---although when I body clip, I still make a point to leave the hair
under the saddle area for more padding.  I always check for loin rubbing and
haven't had a problem since---funny, the only time I've seen a reoccurence
was a few years ago when I got slam-dunked by a car and had some hardware
put into a leg.  It took awhile for the muscles to come back and until they
did, I saw some unilateral rubbing after I'd been riding a long ways, had
gotten too tired and was compensating without even knowing it.

Good luck!

Susan G