What is it, and how does it affect riding and saddle fitting?
Suspension Technology™ has been, for the past 20 years, a hallmark of ThinLine. Through a complicated chemical and mechanical process, ThinLine acts like a suspension bridge; it actually carries the rider’s weight and movement across the entire portion of the ThinLine foam found on all of our saddle pads.
Impact (shock-absorbency) is an important element to add under any saddle for those “unforeseen” moments in riding. This can be achieved via numerous products and textiles; for instance, felt is wonderful, and gels also disperse an immediate hit, but when riding a moving animal, there is much more to the story.
What this means to your horse; even just sitting on your horse’s back all day in a perfectly fitted saddle, the rider’s weight is forced directly onto the tree and subsequently just that small area on the horse’s back. Our suspension technology “carries” the rider weight along the entire ThinLine shim, meaning your horse will have little to no back soreness, making ThinLine the ultimate choice and the best saddle pads for horses with a history of back soreness or in heavy work.
The carrying capacity also makes ThinLine exceptional for saddle fitting. Shimming is great, but it is also done while the horse is stationary. There is much more going on in all of the different gaits with the horses’ back. For instance, if you are shimming at a shoulder, this means the horse needs to lift his shoulder muscle more and is reliable more likely to be dropping that shoulder in turns at any gait. The ThinLine portion above the shim carries the saddle and the rider in those moments. Products like gel simply move when compressed and released, only adding to the issues of stability and balance.
You need more than just shock absorbency to allow your horse to perform with maximum comfort and stability. You need a partner product that effectively carries you quietly and carefully over your horse, thus allowing the communication between you to be effective; quiet seat aids without noisy disruptions.
All ThinLine saddle pads feature this incredible technology. Shop for English or Western saddle pads at thinlineglobal.com
