I get asked a lot about the use of Half Pads when fitting saddles and riding. I’ll try and provide an overview of the most common types and some of the benefits and limitations. To start, I’ll look at Memory Foam Half Pads.
Memory foam seems to be all the rage right now from the new Squish pad to the Ogalvie. So why do so many horse back riders love them? Let’s first think about memory foam as a material and what it is really good at. Remember the old Tempur Pedic mattress commercials where someone is jumping up and down on the bed and there is a glass of wine on the other side that doesn’t tip over. This is because, memory foam is very good at absorbing energy and not transferring.
In a half pad, this means the memory foam is very good at reducing the energy transfer from horse to rider. So if the horse has a rough trot and the rider gets a sore low back sitting the trot, memory foam can help. Or if the rider has a lot of extra movement in their body and the horse is sensitive, memory foam can help. It reduces the “noise” in movement and reduces the transfer of energy from horse to rider. Now if the rider or horse feels better in their body, then the whole ride will feel better to them both.
But if you love a very close contact feel in your saddle and have finely honed aids, the memory foam half pad will feel like a bulky layer that blurs communication between you and your horse. Also, when we think about overall impact absorption, they do not test as reducing the impact of bigger events like landing from a jump. They reduce the noise of excessive movement but not really the overall impact. With all things saddle fit, there is the science, research, tradition, and then there is the horse and rider opinion. So, if interested try one. See what you and your horse think.
Finally, always make sure to tell your saddle fitter if you ride with a half pad so they can fit the saddle with the pads being used.