Invictus Half Pad Review

I've had a lot of half pads. I had a dressage-cut Ogilvy (OMG SO HUGE) and switched to a correction Mattes (fit, but no rear roll sob). Last fall, I decided that the Mattes was a little too bulky and creating pressure ridges under the panels of my saddle, so I needed something new. I went with the Invictus Necesse pad for it's super-modern tech, low profile design, and hell, I had a coupon.

Construction

came with cool bag too

The Invictus website does a fantastic write up of their products--the basic idea is that if you whack them with a stick, the pad "freezes" and aborbs the impact without transferring (much) of it on to the horse. Thus, your motion in the saddle is transmitted to the horse, but sudden impacts and jolts are filtered out. Seems cool. (Noted: this entire paragraph in laymen's terms. For science, ask a scientist.)

non slip top

What that translates to is a thin, spine-free design half pad that's non-slip on top and mesh on the bottom. It doesn't have a washable cover or custom colors like Ogilvy, but after 6+ months of use, my white pad is pretty much a white pad and if I want to it to look more white, I could hose it off I think. 

mesh bottom

Fit

Here's an interesting one. Trends in half pads vary by discipline, so it's normal to have a dressage cut model and a jump cut model (see: Ogilvy, Mattes). Invictus doesn't. There's basically one size, one cut. I ride in a 17.5" dressage saddle that no one calls small, and it looks like this:

It doesn't hang out all over the place and it doesn't create ridges under the saddle. The front is a little more curved to accommodate a jump saddle, but it works just fine under my dressage model. 

holla

Durability

I never review something straight after I buy it. I like to put a lot of miles on it, get it dirty, clean it a few times, and generally abuse it. I mean, otherwise you get those hordes of fangirls that are all "SQUEEE I GOT X TRENDY THING AND NOW I FEEL TRENDY", which like. If you want to feel trendy, fab, but that tells me nothing about said product. 

shown: wear

So after about six months of use, the Invictus pad has some black rubs on it from my black saddle, but those go under the saddle and don't change it's function. I've dropped it in the dirt, had sweat soak through the pad, whatever, and it's pretty much fine. No complaints here.If smudges bother you, maybe don't get white. 

Value

The Necesse pad runs around $250 retail. Ogilvy is $230, Mattes $230 (rear trim, no shims), Thinline Trifecta (shimmable, with trim) $180, Acavalla (gel+sheepskin) $220. There are others, but my point is, it's not out of sight price-wise, especially not when you consider the trendy half pad market. And hey, this is trendy + science! Winning combo. I paid somewhat less than the $250 and word is their are new options coming out, so the odds of hitting an old model sale are good.

Is a half pad worth $200+ dollars? Eh. It depends what kind of issue you're addressing and how much you feel like spending. 

Likes

Science sounding stuff in the name; compact and easily folds in half to store on top of my saddle; low profile design has minimal impact on saddle fit; clean and simple look.

Dislikes

This is maybe minor to some, but kind of big for me--I like to pull my saddle pad up into the gullet of my saddle so it's not creating pressure points on Courage's withers. When I did that with my mattes or ogilvy pads, they stayed right where I put them. This pad slides down and take the saddle pad with it. It technically stays off his withers still, but it does not stay where I put it. Thus far, it doesn't deeply offend me but I can definitely see it being a problem.

Conclusion

If you want something less than Ogilvy in terms of filling up under your saddle and are ok with completely giving up custom colors, this pad would fit the bill. I see it as more of a competitor with the old thinline pads before sheepskin and quilt. Those admittedly were even worse for wither relief, so it just depends what you're looking for. If you want to know if this pad costs enough money and drops enough buzzwords to give you a platform to look down on people who don't have one, I'd say no. It fills space. It's trendy. It's not magic.

If you want the latest and greatest in magical tech, this pad is right for you. If your saddle basically fits, it probably won't make it worse. If you're happy with what you have already, I don't think you need to drop almost $300 for this.

It Went Shopping

It's been a stressful... while... and as I'm sure y'all assumed, I weathered that storm with my usual coping mechanism of buying all the shit I could find. It started out innocuously enough: Lindsey pointed out that smartpak had a killer deal on my favorite breeches, so I bought two pairs because they don't last the longest.

This was like the day before Thanksgiving.

Then what happened... hm... Peony listed a set of Le Mieux bell boots and I wanted to give them a whirl.

pictured with mini-Courage

And then Amanda started hyping the If the Bonnet Fits BOGO Black Friday sale. I'm a sucker for bonnets, but I can't even count the number of black and navy bonnets I have right now, so if I did it, I needed something different, you know? I came up with one (custom, undisclosed) design on my own and made husband-of-the-year go through an extensive ITBF photo album until we found the perfect design for C. (Noted: hubs didn't even get annoyed. The man is a wonder.)

yeah want it need it hurry up already

But then I had colors on the brain so I stole this whole Le Mieux outfit from C's auntie Crystal:

FANCEH

It looked so fantastic that auntie Crystal bought him his own outfit. (Hey look! Something I didn't buy!)

I was having some attacks of conscience over the amount of $ spent though, so I listed a bunch of things I didn't need any more and Jodi contacted me to offer to trade TSF girths since we each had the size the other needed.

so anatomic!

Of course, around this time I got completely walloped in a car accident so I actually haven't put said girth on said horse since receiving it, but dammit I know I could. If I could lift the saddle. We'll see. Whilst lying on the couch suffering/recuperating, I received this super fantastic blogger secret santa present from Stacie, along with tiny candy canes and hot cocoa mix and lovely festive wrapping!

so cool. so blue!

When I finally peeled myself off the couch for a pre-Christmas outing, I ended up coming home with this fantastic monster sweater for teeny dog!

so badass

Ok yes this is a horse blog and y'all don't care about my dogs but OMG HES TEENY AND WEARING A MONSTER SWEATER.

Whatever. My goal is to be the crazy teeny dog lady when I'm old.

Anyways, then my blog stickers showed up (which means if you wanted some and I haven't told you I mailed them to you, contact me and I will).

stickers!

And my dad got me a sportsball-themed halter and lead rope for Christmas, so I snagged a matching santa hat for C and did a sportsball photo shoot.

are we cute or what?

 And then Riding Warehouse had a site-wide 20% off sale which included the new Majyk Equipe dressage boots. If you're over here like "wtf SB last time you put Majyk Equipe boots on C, he completely lost his shit", then yes, we're on the same page. But I bought them because they were purple and I wanted them.

plus they were $55/set with free shipping

 But as we all know, one purple thing requires another. I have very marked preferences in saddle pads and that preference is Ogilvy. Well, technically my favorite is the flannel Mattes, but I loathe and despise the foam Mattes which is way more common and both Mattes are 2x the cost of Ogilvy, so Ogilvy it is.

hullo

 The point is, there's some seller who has a few colors of brand new dressage Ogilvy pads on eBay and one of those colors contained purple to match our new outfit. Plus, when I put all the purple things on C, he was fantastic and apparently completely forgot how much he used to hate non-slip liners in boots. Maybe he was holding out for purple?

sexy

In non-purple news, I also tracked down a set of Vienna reins (that you've already seen), ordered some sparkles that you will see when they show up, and possibly have been sitting here waiting for a biggish-ticket item that I ordered over a month ago and the shipping gods only saw fit to release a couple days ago. Oh and another thing. Not including the things I got for other people. And possibly some things I forgot.

and this other thing. and maybe a fauxssoa.

In case you're keeping track, the number of times I've ridden since getting any of these things is 0. And my PT says I'm still grounded. But dammit, I'm so ready.

Help a Sister Out: Half Pad Problems

My guiding principle #1 on half pads is that they are a primarily trendy item and as long as they don't make your saddle fit worse, it doesn't much matter what type you're using. When Courage was scarily attempting jumping, we used an ogilvy half pad, because they're all the rage in that ring and I like being on trend. 

sheep represent

Then we switched over to dressage. DQs are big on dead sheep, so I snagged a mattes correction pad with shims for like $90 and have just rolled with it. Sans rolls. Ha! #halfpadnerdjoke

I have never noticed Courage care AT ALL about what half pad I put on his back, so in keeping with guiding principle #1, I haven't messed with it. Arguably, I could ride him without one and see what happens, but my brain just likes a little something extra in there because I don't trust myself enough as a judge of saddle fit and I feel better knowing there's some margin for error. (Noted: Courage is an EXCELLENT judge of saddle fit and as you would expect, lets me know when things are sub-optimal, so this is probably frivolous. You're just going to have to accept my human frailty on this point.)

so classic

HOWEVER, whilst tacking up the other day, I was futzing (it's a word??? who knew) with my much-used-shimmable-mattes and noticed that one of the shim pockets is creating a ridge of pressure under the panels of my saddle. I tried adjusting the pocket and screwing with the velcro, but it looks like the pad is just old enough that it's not going to cooperate with me. AKA, it's fine if I have shims in it (probably?), but since I don't, it's not quite laying flat, which means it might be causing me problems, which means it's in violation of principle #1.

And see, we're asking Courage to do hard stuff like lift his back and while he does settle in and do it eventually, it's a learning curve, it's going slowly, and my trainer has commented that he doesn't quiiiiiiite want to give in and lift through his withers. That's probably mostly a training thing, but if my half pad was stabbing me in the back, I'd hesitate too.

so. what to do.

hair hair everywhere and it's covered in dust ewwwwww

I rode Courage this past weekend in his jump ogilvy pad under his dressage saddle, which to me is a very non-flattering look. Of course, I'm also anti-winter-fuzzies, so basically this entire picture is just nails on a chalkboard to me.

If you separate out how I felt about the dust+hair combo (SO GROSS MUST CLIP OMG), I actually had a really superb ride. Which is interesting.

This brings us to options.

1) The mattes problem is all in my head. Carry on with what we have and assume it won't cripple the princess. This is obviously a stupid idea and is pre-discarded. I'm just listing it here so you know I considered it.

2) Use jump ogilvy. Carry on like it's not aesthetic hell. This is obviously a temporary idea. It needs to end. The sooner, the better.

3) Acquire an non-shimmable, non-corrective mattes pad. This eliminates the pressure ridge problem by not having pockets. We stay on-trend for the dressage ring. The major drawback is that this is the $230 answer to the $90 question. Or the $210 answer, if we go without rear trim. Thoughts on rear trim?

hmmmm rolls

4) Be enough of a nerd to know that Blueberry (yes, THE Blueberry) has actually eschewed sheepskin in favor of space age gel. His particular model is lined with sheepskin, which is $ more and seems hard to clean, but there's also an option that's cheaper and simple to clean that would just disappear under my saddle. In addition, the non-sheepskin option would potentially be the $100 answer to the $90 problem, so that's something. There's even a $50 knockoff I could almost justify instead, but if I'm changing brands, I want to get the nicest thing and evaluate it on it's own merits, not sort of half ass it and then be pissed it doesn't work.

it's definitely a look.

5) Explore other options. I mean, I'm actually really interested in the Invictus half pad innovations--if the rumors are true (and I've handled one, so I believe them), the pad essentially eliminates pressure points by distributing weight, which is basically what we're trying to do anyways. I'd buy one RIGHTNOW, but this is the $280 answer to the $90 problem. If you're keeping track, that's by far the most expensive option we've considered so far. It's also not particularly attractive, but I guess that's neither here nor there if it actually does what it claims.

the sadly unattractive invictus

6) Go ogilvy/ecogold/equifit routes. This is another one I'm just listing for your benefit. I've had the first two and handled the third. I kinda lump them all in the same heap. They're fine, but they're not on-trend enough in my ring to satisfy guiding principle #1 and I'm not excited about them.

equifit pretties

Ideally, someone will pipe up and say "hey give me $100 and I will give you this invictus half pad", but that seems like wildly unrealistic speculation at this juncture. Talk to me blog land--what are your half pad solutions/opinions/ideas? What else should I be considering? Do you deeply hate one of the options listed?

Teach Me Tuesday: Best Saddle Pads

I recently purged a large number of old saddle pads.

newest ogilvy

I'm not so much a linen collector, so over the years, I have amassed a large number of saddle pads that people were giving away just to avoid having to buy them. But something happened.

A fellow blogger sent me the coolest gift of all time--a personalized Ogilvy baby pad. LOVE. It's thick enough that it doesn't bunch, thin enough it doesn't change my saddle fit, cut PERFECTLY to contour to my horse's back, forward enough for my jump saddle, and it didn't require a bunch of stupid hateful straps to stay put.

first dressage ogilvy

Then I got a dressage model. And wouldn't you know, it also achieves holy-(saddle pad)-grail status.

So I purged everything that wasn't ogilvy or super cute.

show ogilvy

I have found nirvana.

What makes your perfect saddle pad?

Quick Reviews: Show Equipment

There are lots of bloggers who write lots of helpful product reviews. Those things are super helpful if I'm shopping and super boring if I'm not. In the interst of being as non-boring as possible, here are some quick product reviews of some new stuff I used at the show.

1) FITS Zephyr Dressage Coat review

I found this on clearance for $100 and snagged it because I really, really wanted a four silver button coat with piping and something washable, stretchy, and breathable. This coat checks all the boxes. Wearing dark colors in the sun is wearing dark colors in the sun, but it was bearable, reasonably flattering, and actually fit my ridiculous ape arms. I have never liked a show coat before and I'm not sure I plan to start now, but for $100, I am very pleased.

2) Ogilvy Dressage Profile Pad review

I'm pretty sure both of my ogilvy pads are this model. Regardless, love love love this pad. Fits perfectly on C under my 18" dressage saddle and large Mattes half pad. Never moves, never wrinkles, never rubs. Thick enough to hold it's shape, thin enough to wash well. I wish all my saddle pads were ogilvy.

still going strong in our last test

3) Charles Owen Sparkle JR8 review

I've had this helmet for a while now but haven't worn it much once it broke in because I wanted to save it for shows/clinics/photo shoots.

Love it. I mean, it's just a spruced up JR8, so it's not all fancy and upgraded like other things on the market. I had a jr8 I loved for a couple years and I'm fine with the features and price point. It definitely stands out. I got a ton of compliments and if there were haters, they kept it to themselves. I will say the sparkle game is strong in the dressage crowd, so I wasn't the only one with a shiny helmet.

4) Horze Crescendo Kiana Breeches review

I hate hate hate wearing white breeches, so I didn't own any. I ended up with these through a trade on facebook. The detailing is cute and the fabric isn't see through.

I tried them one once a few months back and then wore them both days for the show. They held up great, didn't give me saggy ass, and smoothed things out reasonably well. I would buy these again no question.

There are some glaring holes in my wardrobe going forward--I need acceptable show gloves (realized morning of that everything I own is blue or brown) and I really need a good stock pin. Preferably with sparkles. I also want custom dress boots but LULZ $$$. Oh and a garment bag (and boot bag!) is starting to sound incredibly useful. Ideas?

Half Pad Review Rundown - Thinline, Ecogold, Ogilvy

Plus you can totes ride with no half pad.

Halfpads are such a fun puzzle. They are very, very faddish and yet they all purport to help...something... and we shell out lots of money for them. Today I'm going to focus on the three most expensive half pads I've owned and the logic for them. You'll note that none of them are sheepskin. Here's why:

My friends in the medical industry point out that coma patients are not swaddled in sheepskin. If it really had magical properties, they'd be all up in that shit, but they're not. Rather, humans in need of pressure relief and long term comfort are all about the high tech foam. Say what you will about modern medicine, I'd rather be a coma patient in 2014 than 1014. Sorry sheep. (Not sorry? They get to keep their skin in my world.)

First up:

There is a lot of new stuff in this picture

Thinline Trifecta with sheepskin rolls - Smartpak $157 with free shipping

I bought this pad several years ago. Thinline was WAAAAY trendy then. I think it's sort of fading now, but maybe that's just because it's old hat to me and I don't feel that interested.

Regardless. I bought this pad because I wanted something shimmable and magical to make my extremely picky mare happy. (Duly noted: if you are a one-horse ammy who lessons infrequently, the odds are that your hormonal mare needs her ass kicked more than a magikal half pad. Hindsight being what it is.)

Izzy canters in the thinline

Anyways. This pad fit the bill, right down to the stylish sheepskin rolls. It didn't have the skeepskin under the saddle, because even I thought that was excessive.

This pad did the job. I know a lot of people argue that thinline holds heat and can lead towards soft tissue injury and blah blah blah. To them I say this: IT'S UNDER A SADDLE THAT'S UNDER YOUR ASS. Heat is going to happen. I think the heat argument is a very legitimate reason to not use certain boots, but I don't get worked up about saddle pads for that reason.

I sold this pad a short while after I sold my mare, because it really did add a lot of bulk under the saddle. It worked fine--between that and a well-fitted saddle, I really never had any soreness issues with my mare.

It's not a bad option, but if you're buying half pads to stay on trend, it's a bit dated.

There is a lot of new stuff in this picture

Ecogold Triple Protection half pad - Ecogold $165 plus shipping

My next crazy splurge in the half pad world was the totally on-trend ecogold that comes in a lovely shade of brown. I love brown. It also comes in more boring colors, but wutevs. Not interested.

I bought this some time after the infamous m&ms test. It's a nice pad. It's a little rigid, which isn't quite the right word. The very soft foam holds it's shape very well, and that shape is pretty set. It works on the horse just fine and it's easy to store because it folds up nice and flat. It doesn't just collapse onto the horse, I guess is what I'm trying to say.

Canter pictures seemed like a good idea

That said. (Whatever it was.) While the ecogold is maybe the least sexy option I'm talking about today, I used it constantly with my MW saddle that didn't quite fit Mr. C-rage. He has never exhibited any signs of back soreness. That actually impresses me.

The saddle wasn't a bad fit, but it definitely wasn't great and I never had any ill effects from it. I will give the ecogold triple protection pad at least some of the credit for that.

I even still own this pad. It's thin enough that it can go under pretty much anything, but it seems to do a nice job on the horses and I have no burning urge to sell it.

Only the half pad is new in this picture.

Ogilvy Jumper Half Pad - Ogilvy Equestrian $199 plus shipping

If you've ever used social media, you know that Ogilvy is red hot right now. I'm going to risk sounding like a hipster right now and say that I was aware of them long before their recent rise in popularity, but I grant you the custom covers and all are way more sexy than the weird old colors they used to have in the Dover catalogs.

Anyways. I think a major drawback to these pads is the ridiculous wait time attached to your custom order. Talk about an impulse buy buzz kill. I held out for a good long time because I already had the ecogold and I have the patience of a caffeinated quail, but then one popped up on eBay in the colors I wanted and I just happened to have money in my checking account. Whoops.

More cantering. Ogilvy in action.

I did get some free front risers with my ebay buy, so I guess that was nice. Like the thinline, the Ogilvy is completely shimmable. Unlike the ecogold, it's also totally washable. I actually think this is one of the best perks of ogilvy--as long as you don't buy the gummy pad, you can just take the inserts out and wash the cover. NONE of the other half pads offer this option.

Dunno 'bout the rest of y'all, but my shit gets dirty and I like the idea of being able to clean it.

Maybe an ogilvy will make your horse jump like this

The Ogilvy, much like the ecogold, really does seem to pad out the rough patches in saddle fit, whether that's a little hollow behind the wither or tree panels a little too wide for the horse. I've been quite pleased with the sweat marks under all the saddles I've tried in both pads.

I have heard people criticize the Ogilvy pads for being too thick and changing the fit of a saddle. My pad in the regular 1" thickness and it squishes down well enough that I really haven't noticed a difference. When I tried a slightly-too-wide saddle on Courage, I did have to use the front shims to make it fit. Yeah, it looks like a lot when you're tacking up, but they squish right down and you have to tighten the girth a lot after you get on.

This is how we jump in an ecogold

Wrap up

We live in a really cool time for technology, both equine and otherwise. I've certainly enjoyed playing with trendy half pads, but at the end of the day, a well-fitting saddle and solid training is more important that brand names and cute colors.

That said.

If your saddle fits, by all means, buy the cutest half pad you can afford. They don't hurt the horse, might possibly help, and everyone loves looking at pretty things.

Because sometimes we just play dress up

PS My conscience compels me to point out that at no point have my horses struggled with significant back soreness. Whether that's because I always have a majikal half pad or because I buy saddles that fit or because I don't ride very much or because my horses are made of iron or because I'm just bloody lucky, I really can't say.

Long Term Plans (or "How to Make my Brain Explode")

The best at being cute with a mask on

I gave Courage a couple days off this week while I thought about the big picture--what we're doing and where we're going. (I am NOT a big picture person in general, so yes, I do have to set aside time to figure that sort of thing out.)

First things first: we adjusted our goals. My nervous riding+Courage being green was not helping anyone out in the XC field. I made an executive decision to just be ok with not doing that anymore this year. I'm not ruling out chucking redheadlins up in the tack and sending them off, but it doesn't need to be me at this point in time.

We are also not sort of hoping to scrape it together and do the little hunter derby in August. If all went according to plan this year, it wasn't out of reach, but nothing has worked out the way I meant it to. If Courage goes to the jumper shows in August, he'll do the 2' division and a flat class or something. And again, not ruling out trainer rides for that. I need calm, positive experiences just as much as he does.

Of course I wish it was a dee

We're also mixing up the tack front a little bit. I dropped us down to an even softer bit and am taking a couple rides to just solidify the things we worked on for cowpony day. Great takeaways there, really happy with what our western fling did for my little man.

Wednesday we just did w/t/c both directions on the buckle and let everything flow forward. I think it's good confidence building for me and it relaxes him because I'm not picking at all. It was a surprisingly great ride. Maybe next time we'll try using the new bit? Hard to say.

Not gonna lie, totally want a stock saddle right now. I need to get other financial ducks in a row first, but how cute would C-rage be as a pony horse? Team penner?

Too cute.

What can I say? Sometimes I stress buy. Ebay loves me.

So that's where I'm at. I'm an ammy. It's summer. My horse is cute. At the end of the day, I want a calm, all-around horse who I can have fun on, whether that's doing an XC clinic or winning a belt buckle at some crazy western event*. I'm not going to keep freaking out that I'm overfacing my horse and ruining him or that I'm not challenging him enough and he'll never amount to anything.

You know what? I'm having fun with him right now, and that is the whole entire point.

Mission.

F******

Accomplished.

*Hey, I can dream. Belt buckles are possibly cooler than ribbons because it's socially appropriate to wear them around and show off.

PS I know I keep editing my swears. I go back and forth between "HAHA BITCHES I'M A GROWN UP" and "oh my god, kids read this blog". That is a big picture question for another day.