English Saddle Pads...

What type do you prefer and why?
I've seen mostly these two kinds:

This fluffy kind:




And the quilted one:


(Forgive my lack of terminology knowledge... been western my whole life and spent too much time memorizing bloodlines and other not-so-important things)

I prefer the quilted kind because I think they look classier and they seem to come in a wider array of colors. And my mare is already crazy wide so the extra thickness of the fluffy ones is exactly what I don't need.

Okay, cause right now, I have a fluffy one and I'm not liking it. And decent looking quilted ones are only, like 25 bucks at my tack shop....

I like the quilted on I have a couple from lami-cell (i think) that are awesome

I know what my horse wants for Christmas!!!!!!!

At my barn, the fluffy ones and the square ones are usually used for different things. Usually unless you're showing you wouldn't use the fluffy one on its own. It would be a square pad and then a fluffy one on top of it for a little extra padding.

While I mostly use square pads for schooling, count me old school in preferring shaped pads for showing. I like the simple, clean look, personally. Even in dressage. Many square pads are just too big and create a distraction from the horse, IMO. Only when I showed upper levels in dressage would I always use a square pad. It helped in dry cleaning by keeping the tails cleaner. My square show pads are quite small, barely covered by the saddle.

Yup, old school. Well, not THAT old, real old school was no pad, at all.

I don't like fluffy ones because they add lots of bulk (and interact with the saddle fit). I go with the square pad + Thinline pad on top of it (for shock absorption).

Then I'd have to clean my saddle with the soap after every ride. Doesn't matter how well I brush my horses still stay dusty (unless washed).