I am hoping (knowing
Ridecamp, it might be difficult ) to correct a misdiagnosis of your saddle
problem.
First, how to
tell if the problem is from a stirrup bar: In '92, before I was riding
intermediate myself, I was a spectator. A smallish woman with a tall, drop
dead gorgeous TB came back from cross country with a horse totally soaked in
sweat. When the saddle came off, there were two silver dollar
sized, dry, raised areas under the saddle - the only dry spots on the
horse. When I flipped the saddle over, firm lumps were easily palpable
thru the panel padding from the Stueben stirrup bars. Similarly I have
seen multiple foxhunters with Stueben generated white scars in precisely that
location. If you think your saddle has a stirrup bar problem, examine the
bottom of the saddle; only if you can feel the bars thru the pading, are they
causing a problem!
Your
description, Tammy, is different from the above injury. I have partially
or completely removed the panels from the underside of multiple Wintec saddles
and can testify that they are designed to avoid a stirrup bar injury.
Rather Ron Bates has designed the bar so far away from the horse, that many
people, myself included, use the Wintec webber leathers to avoid having a buckle
dig into the thigh.
Three things contribute to the hand sized dry areas, that you
describe. Heat, as you mention, is certainly a potential part.
The plastic underside of the saddle is unforgiving. We favor the Supracor
because it pumps cooling air under the saddle with each step. Friction is
also a part: if you rub your hands together they warm. The purpose of the
old fashioned sheepskin pad was to provide a sliding interface between horse and
saddle.
The third factor
is a lack of symmetry of the underside of the tree and your horse; there
is a concentration of rider weight towards the front of your saddle. On
the saddle rocker page of our website, www.InvernessFarm.com, http://home.earthlink.net/~qhll/Backs.htm, look at the waffly Supracor pattern in pictures 1 and
2. That hand sized area is where the saddle rested before we modified the
tree. Most of our horses find the Wintecs more comfortable with the
tree flattened to reduce rocker.
