I have a hard to fit horse.  You would think that as many horses as we see and help fit through the store that fitting our personal mounts would be easy, but that did not prove to be the case with my mare, Lolly.  She has a fairly narrow back and all of my saddles were just a little too wide for her.  I tried maybe 6 different saddles before finding one (A Martin Saddlery All-Around with adjustable rigging) that was a great fit for her without a pad, but I still got some dry spots after I rode her.  The fit was not bad enough to cause her problems on short rides and training sessions, but I wanted to trail ride some this past summer and the last thing I wanted was a sore backed horse halfway through a five hour ride.  In the meantime, I had acquired another horse and a new Alpine contoured pad for her.  I'm usually not a fan of swapping pads from horse to horse, but I decided to give the new pad a try on Lolly. 

The first time I rode that pad and saddle combination and untacked, I was so happy!  First time I had ever had a full, perfect sweat pattern on this horse.  This is a good example of a common problem.  More pad does not always mean less problem!  Many people think that saddle fit can be corrected with a thicker or heavier pad, and that was actually causing my problem.  The thick, stiff pad was not conforming to her shape, lifting the saddle up and causing bridging putting too much pressure at the front of the saddle and leaving the dry spots.  The thick pad is now being used on a horse with a more uniform, rounded shape and working perfectly, so the pad itself was fine, just not right for Miss Lolly.

As you can see in the first picture, my little mare 4 hours in to our 5 hour ride was relaxed (and half asleep on the bridge) with no pain.  Perfect sweat pattern at the end of the ride, as well.  We had a great time riding the Caprcok Canyon Trailways, and NO soreness the next day. The new horse lost her pad to Lolly.  Maybe that's why I was so excited when I saw this picture of Kenda Lenseigne at Professional's choice on Facebook.  Kenda was getting a preview of the 2012 colors, and if you look closely you can see a new color in the Alpine contoured pad, and a whole new pattern in the contoured shape!  I can't wait for them to be released so that my poor Elvira can have a new pad, and keep it!