Finally! A Saddle Pad with Withers Wiggle Room

By Emily Penn

As the Horse Journals staff are mostly riders, we get the opportunity to chat a lot about the products we either wish we owned, or wish we could invent,…and we do a lot of wishing. At the moment the product of conversation is the Bucas Max Saddle Pads. These pads seem to be the perfect thickness, not pillowy or bulky but not the thin baby pad style either. With the small square style of padding they are compact and fit nicely.

My favourite thing about these pads is the wiggle room they provide at the withers. With my regular saddle pad, every time I tack up I pull the pad up in front of the saddle, but by the time I’m halfway through my ride it’s already slipped down and is pressing over Chase’s withers. The Bucas Max, in both the dressage and all-purpose styles, has been designed to give extra room for the withers. There is about an extra inch of material that goes above the spine break on the pad allowing the pad to sit without needing to be pulled up, and still providing the extra space needed by the withers. And it doesn’t slip! I’m not sure it would make as much difference for a small-withered horse, but my horse has obnoxiously large withers, so I really like this feature. The front is not raised so much that it looks weird, and as an added bonus, because the pad doesn’t need to be pulled so far forward to accommodate the withers, more room is left behind the cantle. My saddle has a 17-inch seat and there was more than enough pad to go around.

The saddle pads come in black, white, brown, and navy, with nice, simple trim. This is definitely a pad that can be used in the show ring.

So if you are in the market for a new saddle pad – and one with wither wiggle room – consider a Bucas Max Saddle Pad. You can find more information on Bucas’s website at www.bucas.com.