Saddle Pad Experiment

I had an interesting day yesterday. I helped one of my teenage riders with her science fair project. Her experiment involved comparing which saddle pad type would keep the horse’s back cool. She compared wool saddle pads to fleece saddle pads.


We started at 12:30. Katie and her mom unloaded saddle pads and a scale to weigh saddles and pads. We brought 7 horses into the stalls and feed their grain and hay to keep them content for the afternoon. Katie’s job was to brush all the horses while her mom helps me put 2 round bales into the big lot. (I tried to put out round bales by myself earlier in the week. I grain the horses, open the gate, drove the tractor with round bale through the gate, close the gate, and then I couldn’t lift those darn heavy round bale feeders up onto their side! I could lift them up just a few years ago, and now I couldn’t. I’m thinking because the rounded bottom part of the legs had worn off over the years, and I didn’t have that extra 8” of leverage. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it! I can NOT be that I’m older! Oh well…) After we finished putting out round bales, we helped Katie finish brushing the horses.

(Temperature probe in wool pad)

Katie’s project involved working each horse on a lunge line for 15 minutes, using each type of saddle pad on each horse, and recording the horse’s back temperature, rectal temp, and saddle pad temp before and after each lunge time. She weighed each saddle that would be used. She also weighed the saddle pads before and after the exercise to determine if they were heavier due to sweat.


We worked 7 horses for her project. We started with a group of 3 horses. Katie had temperature strips to record the horse’s back temp before saddling, a rectal thermometer to record the horse’s internal temp, and a probe thermometer to take the saddle pad temp. She recorded temps on each horse, then we saddled, using the wool pads. We walked to the outside arena, and Katie, her mom, and I walked the 3 horses for 5 minutes, trotted the horses for 5 minutes, then walked them again for 5 minutes on a lunge line. We walked back to the barn, and unsaddled and recorded all 3 temps again. We saddled the same horses again, using the fleece pads. We lunged the horses for the same times, and she recorded the same temps. We repeated the process with the other horses.


We did notice that we started the day at 50 degrees at 1, and by 3, the temp started dropping. By 5, when Katie and her mom finished lunging the last group for the 2nd time, the outside temp was only in the 30’s. Even though the horses didn’t sweat, their backs still had an increase in body temp and so did the saddle pads. The internal temp did increase slightly. One type of saddle pad did increase in temp over the other type of pad. I’m anxious to see her results and I will record them here as soon as she has her report written.


After seeing the results today, I could see where she could have done this experiment in warmer weather. If the horses had sweated some, we would have seen a higher difference in all the temps, plus had some weight gain in the saddle pads. It would have been interesting to see what pads would have kept the back cooler in hotter weather, and whether or not the increase weight in saddle pads due to sweat would have had an effect on a cooler back or not. Katie said she would try the same experiment next summer on a hot day.


I would like to try this experiment on Finny next summer, in the middle of summer, and see what saddle pad DOES keep a back cooler in 90 degree weather! I will use the cell foam pad to this experiment, as this is the type of pad that I ride at CTRs. I will also test a synthetic wool fiber as I practice in this type of pad, that has a neoprene center.

I can’t wait to see what pad keeps a horse’s back the coolest. I will definitely take the results of this experiment into consideration when I ride next summer.

Come along for the ride! Brenda