Re: RC: CAIR or FLAIR

[Oldwaggy@aol.com]

In a message dated 8/24/01 8:31:51 AM, michrowe@redwrench.com writes:

<< Has anyone who is MW or HW tried the CAIR or FLAIR panels for competitive

riding & how'd they work?  The new Bates/Wintec saddles with the CAIR panels

and the adjustable gullets look interesting...  Has anyone seen or ridden

one? >>

I would be very cautious about investing money into one of these saddles.  I 
am a middleweight rider.  I borrowed an Icelandic saddle fitted with air 
panels before the XP.  It was the same model, an Astund Special, I have used 
for several thousand miles but had the air panels.  On short rides of two 
hours or less, it seemed to fit very well and give the horses a nice freedom 
of movement.  Unfortunately, I did not have the opportunity to test it on 
longer rides.  Needing a extra saddle, I went ahead and bought it and planned 
to use as my main saddle on the XP.

I used it on each horse during our opening days in Kansas on top of a Toklat 
Woolback pad.  Each horse's back was terribly scalded by heat build-up.  It 
may have been the weather.  Temperatures were near 100 degrees, humidity was 
near 100 percent and it rained hard off and on.  It would be hard to imagine 
worse conditions underneath a saddle.  Still, once I changed back to my old 
saddles of the same model without the air panels,  we had no more back 
problems for the rest of the ride.  That one day of scalding left scabbing I 
had to pay close attention to for weeks.  

I did not use the air panel saddle again because I couldn't take the chance 
given the long days ahead of us.  I still wonder if I could have started 
using Skjoldur for more miles earlier in the ride if I hadn't used that 
saddle on him that one day in Kansas.  I will probably try the saddle again 
in a one day ride sometime in the next few months when the temperatures are 
lower to see what happens.

Try to borrow one for some long hard days before buying.  I am curious to 
hear if other people have experienced problems with heat build-up.   I think 
the concept of air panels is great otherwise.

John Parke
Solvang CA