To Cair or to flock?

Bates and Wintec saddles (and possibly other brands) come with a choice of stuffing - Cair or flock.  Flock is the traditional stuffing that looks a bit like cotton wool.  Cair are air panels.

Riding on air sounds kind of cool, and it sounds like it would be good and comfortable for the horse too.  However, when Gally didn't seem too happy to be saddled, I got researching (as you do) about the Cair panels.  I found a few private ads selling the saddles with Cair, accompanied by a statement that the horse appears to not like the Cair, and goes much better in a flock saddle.  I also found the topic discussed in some equestrian forums.  But at the end of the day, there was little more to go by than the "my horse goes better in a flock saddle".

Since I suspected that some of my issues with Gally were due to Cair, when buying Sabina a saddle I was adamant that it had to be flock.  Once the saddle fitter was out, we had a solid chat about the two types of stuffing.  And here is the low down.

Cair tends to suit the narrower horses, preferably with a high wither.  It sits well on their backs, moulds to their shape, and prevents pressure points.

When you get a horse with a wider back, and a lower wither, the Cair tends to roll around a bit.  Which means that as the rider's weight shifts, the saddle rolls over the air bubble that is Cair.  With the wider horses, this can be a fair bit of roll, simply because of their shape.  Now, some horses won't mind this, just like they won't mind a fly.  But other horses ... well it will just freak them out.  Yep ... that sounds like Gally (who incidentally, detested flies).

After this conversation with the saddle fitter, I have basically made up my mind that flock, in general, is better.  Obviously, for the time being I am stuck with Cair.  I will give it a solid go with Lil, as she has "the prefect back for it" apparently.  However, I will be keen to compare it with a flock saddle if I get the chance.  And in the long run, I am intending to replace our Cair saddles with flock ones.

So maybe, the title of this post should have been "Back to the flock"?