The Panel Pandemic: Part One

Diamonds are forever...

But they’re a bit hard so we decided not to use them to make saddle panels. Instead, after much trial and error, we decided to use softer materials. Such as wool and foam.

Now, the benefit to this is they’re both great to ride on, but they both have a shelf life. “What, you’ve sold me a saddle that won't stay brand new forever?!”

That’s correct (sorry.) Are we advocates of Planned Obsolesce? Absolutely not. Are we here to be real? Absolutely.

“So, what’s the deal?”

If you read our updates to the panel page earlier, naturally, you might have some questions. One that comes up time and time again, not just in NRD Land but the saddle fitting world in general is the question on the reworking of foam panels.

We’re all familiar with the reworking of flocked panels, but the idea of foam can be alien to begin with. The majority of us in our horse riding lifetime have paid a professional several times over the years to come and have a wiggle around the underneath of our saddle with a flocking iron. So sometimes, when faced with the unknown (or foam, as we like to call it) there can be some confusion.

“Where the hell do I stick the flock?!”

Well, nowhere...

It’s true: Foam cannot be reworked, only replaced. And please, if anyone has ever charged you to reflock a panel you now know to be foam: get them to replace that money right back into your bank account right away...

"Is this a secret?"

No.

Flocked panels need frequent attention to keep them regulated (one benefit of foam is it does not require so many saddle checks and thus less £££ on callouts.) Flock, just like foam, also eventually wears out. Your saddle will need a complete reflock every couple of years if you are lucky. Maybe parts of the panel top will wear out, and that will need replacing too.

This is not just an “us thing” this is a universal saddle thing. Your panel is arguably the hardest working part on the whole saddle, between horse and rider, the panel has a lot to contend with – some of them really take a battering!

That being said, with the right care and attention, any panel, flocked or foam, can last you a very long time. Both can stay as perfectly shapely, soft and as supportive as the day the saddle was made.

“Okay, but why would my panel wear out?”

There are a number of factors including:

. Storage of the saddle

. Being incorrectly altered

. Rider asymmetry

. Horse asymmetry

. Riding more on one reign/diagonal than the other

. Rolled Numnahs

The list goes on. If the universe is governed by the laws of cause and effect, what makes you think saddles are any different? If you’ve got a problem, there will be a root cause to investigate.

“I don’t see a problem, are you blaming me?”

Think of your saddle for a minute like a pair of shoes. (Pick a shoe, pick any shoe.) Some of us grownups have had our favorite pair of shoes since the year of our lord still began with 19. Yet, think of a school child who can wear out a perfectly good pair of Clarkes every term. If the sole has the same function on the shoe as the panel, protecting and cushioning your feet from the ground, similar to how the panel protects and cushions the horse from the saddle tree. You can see how, if we wear the heels out on our favorite pair of shoes, we might in fact choose to do nothing about it, for some of us, we get used to it and that’s no hardship. (Some horses still perform with suboptimal panels; it depends on the mental characteristics of the animal. Tell that to the next bright spark who likes to point out that their saddle hasn’t had a reflock in the past 10 years and good old Trigger is still jumping puissances. In between going head to head with Valegro and leaving the 3 year olds for dust at Ascot, of course.)

On the other hand, some of us might choose to go to the cobbler and have the heel built back up to the original level. The same as you might do to a saddle with a flocking or shim adjustment. Maybe the worn down heel is causing us a bit of backache, or we're walking a bit funny in them now. We fix the problem for the time being with a short-term adjustment to get the shoes back to where they need to be functional again.

Sometimes though you’ll need to have the shoe completely resoled. You’ve worn those shoes for hours at a time for years, they’re comfy and they do the job. Hey, those shoes were good money back in the day, they’re not going in the bin from a bit of wear and tear. That sole has done its job, so let’s just put a new one on them and get another couple of years use. (And definitely not sell them online to some poor, unsuspecting person who doesn’t know they’re worn out and now thinks that brand is poor...) So if a complete resoling is the same as a new set of panels... You get my point by now.

My point is: Foam/Flock are not safe from the hands of time. A saddle in use will naturally need maintenance throughout its life, it's up to you what you want to ride on and it's up to us to make that happen for you.

Everything here at NRD saddles is transparent, you only have to ask.

We have no trade secrets because we have nothing to hide. We believe in our saddles and believe that in educating others; we can work together to get horses and riders of all abilities happy in their work.

So this concludes my panel pandemic blog Part 1.

Join me next time where I discuss saddle fitters, the Fire and Brimstone method, short term fitting fixes and why you can’t polish a turd... Aka why the best panels on the planet won’t make up for a rubbish tree)

TLDR: Foam and Flock both have their own place in saddle panels. Life is hard and wear and tear are harder, things get old and need fixing. Don’t give up, almost everything can be amended so you can happily gallop off into the sunset on a perfectly balanced saddle once again.