PRS saddle pad opinions please

I'm looking at purchasing a Clinton Anderson PRS saddle pad. They are expensive and if I'm going to kick in my Christmas and Birthday money I figured I would seek out your opinion if anyone has one.
Here is the web site from Clinton Anderson
Vida has been getting dry spots on her withers. I haven't really worried about it but my husband says I can buy a new saddle pad and he wants me to get this one. She isn't sore or anything like that and there hasn't been any white hairs coming in.
His concept of the dry hair coming from too much contact rather than too little is opposite of what I was working for with the Skito pad I have now. I thought I would just buy another Skito, but now I don't know which to get
What do you think?

If you have dry spots, then your saddle might be too narrow in front, which you cannot fix with a saddle pad... Can you take a picture of your saddle on your horse, no pad please? So we can see how it fits. Take a photo from the side, then from the front. For the front photo, step back so we can see the whole shoulder and how the front skirts lay against the horse.

If it is too tight, then I would recommend using a ThinLine pad over or under a THIN single layer saddle blanket, get either the western half pad or the rounded skirt ThinLine. That will reduce the bulk and alleviate that pressure point. This is only a temporary fix though. The only way to fix a too narrow saddle is to sell it and buy a new one .

Adding a thick 1" pad under an already tight saddle is only going to make the fit worse. That cut out at the withers might help there, but you're going to create more problems elsewhere.

A gel pad with/or without a sheepskin is an alternative.
They cost around $100 AUS.

Liz.

Gel just bottoms out under pressure points. It really doesn't do any good for anything but a well fitting saddle, or a saddle that's too wide.

I don't have any photos with just the saddle and it snowed yesterday so Vida is all wet and sloppy
Here is a photo of her back right after I took the saddle off and she rolled in the dust so you can really see the dry spots
I assumed the saddle was to big. Skito is an open cell foam and is very similar to the Thinline. I sent them this and several other photos and they sent me shims for the front of the saddle. Basicly adding thickness to the dry areas. Adding them only seemed to increase the dry area. Is that a good thing?
The 1" of felt on the PRS pad was a concern of mine too. It seems awfully thick. The removal of padding at the dry spots seemed logical to me for some reason.

Maureen, Those look like the dry spots that I was getting on my gelding. When I put a saddle on him it would be lower in the front then the back and the use of a buildup pad caused bridging and the dry spots.

I used a 1" felt pad and carefully marked the areas where the saddle was not touching then sewed in additional felt. That was all done after trying 6 different saddles and a good fitter! Ultimately I bought a saddle with a 6 3/4" gullet and FQH bars which worked.

He finally gained weight and muscle no longer needing the build up. There is still a little dryness but no saddle will ever fit this guy perfectly.

Put your saddle on him and get your hand underneath. Try to feel where the dry spots are and if there is either too much space or if it's too tight at that spot.

Too tight and you really need to change the saddle, too much space and you can use shims to fill in the void.

The white hairs take a long time to show up so don't go by that.

If adding thickness made the dry spots worse, then that means the saddle is too tight/small and you need LESS thickness upfront, which is why I recommended the ThinLine pad. ThinLine is only 1/4" thick and just as shock absorbing as Skito (I have both pads). ThinLine is also better at eliminating pressure points than Skito.

As IRide saidm white hairs don't show up right away. They can take a full year, or even more, of riding in an ill fiting saddle to show up.

Take those pictures for us of your horse with saddle and no pad. We'll be able to tell pretty well if it's too tight or too loose on him.

Tony is wanting to take a snow ride so I'll try to get the photos today and post them tonight.

Very true. That is a common mistake that riders make.

With and without the pad would be a great thing.

I'm a very firm beliver in avoiding the use of synthetics against a horse's back even though I did for years. I do like the CA pad since it can be had with 1" felt underneath. However it will only work if your saddle is a little tight rather then too big; even then if it is too tight, more bulk is the wrong thing to do.

How thick is your current pad?

My current pad is 3/4" open cell foam inside a fleece liner. I put the shims in I just got a week or so ago and they add another 1/4" or so to the dry areas. The guy made a custom shim that is the shape of the dry spots.