Why Woolskins?

[JAM]

Hi, all,

I was perusing an earlier topic about woolskin compression, and how a new saddle doesn't really fit the horse until the woolskins are compressed, and how to speed up the compression; and I got to pondering why we use them at all. Why not just put leather on the undersides of the skirts? Has anyone tried this? Does anyone have a functional answer as to why or why not line the skirts with woolskins? Just curious.

Julia

[Sylvia]

I could be wrong but I would think that even compressed wool on the skins would provide a measure of protection for the horse. Consider that even a well fitting, tightly cinched saddle will have some movement. Prolonged rubbing would cause skin ulcers (think blisters) which would invite infection. I would think that we would want to do everything possible to protect such an expensive animal, especially if the horse is a stock or range rider's horse that could potentially save our lives.

[JAM]

But the saddle is always sitting on a pad or blanket (or two). English saddles are leather on the underside and sit on various kinds of blankets or pads - so I'm not convinced that rubbing is the answer (yet). But that's certainly one idea to think about

[tnawrot2]

English saddles have adding between the tree and the leather we see, it is not tree covered with leather. Whereas a western saddle has tree, leather then the wool skin. So both English and Western saddles have padding between the tree and the horse if put on the horse without and extra pads or blankets.

[oltoot]

I think but am not absolutely sure that it is a mix of tradition and adaptation. The rawhide covered tree comes to us from a marriage of native American and Moorish tradition. Part of that was to put some kind of long haired hide down as a pad which eventually became a sewed in lining and tannage of woolskins developed along the way. btw sheepskin was in short supply during WWII as it was used for military clothing and saddles during that period were sometimes lined with leather of felt. When sheepskin became readily available again it regained its popularity. It really does help some in providing an interim softness layer. I have tried to convince several customers to skip the sheepskin and invest in a new high-tech pad; so far to no avail. I'll continue to advocate for it but wont break with tradition unless I get a big deposit.

[JAM]

Well, since I build saddles I think I'll do an experiment with my own saddle and take the woolskin off and see what happens. I can always put it back on if it turns out to be a bad idea. The historical perspective sounds familiar based on old saddles I've seen, and pictures of even earlier traditions. That's part of what I was wondering. Thanks, everyone.

[Matt S]

I was taught (from the English tradition) that saddle pads and blankets are there to absorb sweat, grease and dirt; easier to wash and dry one than your saddle. If your saddle's rubbing you have a fit problem and no end of padding will solve that. As mentioned above English saddles have a layer of wool padding between the tree and the puter layer already. Replacement of this is a skilled job when it eventually felts down so I suppose this could be one reason why woolskin might be a better althernative, especially on a Western tree where the contact surface is much larger (and thus the pressure lower) than an English tree.

[Ken Nelson]

Decades of wearing saddles out on ranches and feedlots and over a dozen years of building them, along with countless hours of researching the why of doing things have pointed me in the direction of: Woolskins main purpose is to help the saddle keep from moving excessively first and cushion secondly. That said, I have seen old saddles that had the wool matted down to where there was no padding to speak of and they did not sore horses. this is from my personal observation. However if you rub your hand from front to back on these saddles, you will feel a certain amount of resistance in fact some feel they get "stickier" when they are matted down well. This also depends on how good a quality of woolsking went into the skirts in the first place. They old timers that were around when I was a kid and a really young man had a lot of answers and most of them made sense if you could get them to explain their opinions. They did not seem to be as concerned about cushioning as they were about keeping the saddle from moving around with a fairly loose cinch. Beleive me these old boys would ride a horse hard all day long in open country and still be a horseback at supper time. They roped a lot of cattle and protecting a horses back was very important to them. AS SAID; A man a horseback is a cowboy or rancher taking care of his cattle, A man afoot is a cow farmer watching his cattle get away! Therefore, the first consideration was for fitting the horse and helping to keep him working. 50 years ago on them ranches I was on and around, the quality of sheepskin in a saddle was a quality factor considered when getting a new saddle. In my opinion, it still is. Thanks for your patience. Ken

[JAM]

Outstanding answer to my query, thanks!

[bruce johnson]

One of the showring pleasure saddle companies tried a foam padding under the bars and then a layer of leather over that. I rode a few colts for a guy in college and he had one. It slid around a lot.