Ashley Holzer & Pop Art qualify for World Cup

Ecogold-sponsored three-time Olympian Ashley Holzer and Pop Art secured their place at the FEI World Cup Final with a victory in the WEF Dressage Classic Grand Prix musical freestyle at the Palm Beach Equestrian Center on Saturday March 14. Already leading the North American standings, their results qualified them for the 2009 World Cup in Las Vegas.

We had the chance to travel to Wellington, Florida at the end of January and watch Ashley & Pop Art win both the Grand Prix and the Grand Prix Freestyle at the CDI-W Gold Coast Opener. Riding in the Frictionless Dressage saddle pad, they performed their Olympic Grand Prix Freestyle scoring 76.250% for the double victory.
“I wasn't feeling very well but nonetheless Poppy really helped me out and did one of the best freestyles he has ever done,” remarked Holzer, who is one of the top ten riders in the world on the FEI Dressage World Ranking List. “It was clean and expressive. His piaffe and passage were fabulous and without tension. His lack of tension enabled me to have a much better walk tour as well.”

How to achieve a perfect fit

We travel from horse show to horse show and see poor-fitting saddle pads all the time. Not enough by itself, some misguided riders often combine a too-short saddle pad with a thick halfpad, creating even more pressure points.

Here is our latest video, showing how to choose a saddle pad that fits your saddle and horse. Some of the recommendations are basic common-sense and should be obvious, but in practice many riders show with pads that don't fit. It's essential to have a perfectly-fitted pad to avoid pressure points.


So, to recap:

1. Buy a saddle pad that fits your saddle.Ideally, bring your saddle along when you go buy a saddle pad. When you put the saddle on top, you should have about 1.5-2 inches all around your saddle.
2. Remember: cotton shrinks!If you use a cotton pad, make sure to buy it a little too big (2 inches rather than 1.5”) to account for shrinkage. High-tech saddle pads like ECOGOLD's do not contain cotton or poly-cotton so they don't shrink.
3. Careful: forward flaps!Check for a forward-shaped saddle pad if you have that type of saddle.

4. High-withered shape? Get a high-withered pad! Sometimes, riders with high-withered horses get a square pad and pull it up at the front to try to make it fit. A better option is to get a saddle pad with a high-withered shape.

Make sure you can put your hand under the saddle and feel free space at the withers.

WitherCare Dressage pad

Here's a video showing our lastest saddle pad. The WitherCare™ pad is very useful for riders that ride more than one horse with the same saddle. A custom-made saddle is not always an option and the WitherCare™ helps balance and fit the saddle to any horse.

Animatch video

Some of our employees (=me!) volunteer at Animatch, a dog adoption center where we got one of the ECOGOLD daschunds. It's a great place and we produced this short video to celebrate its 10 year anniversary.

Happy New Year!!

Just got back to work after closing for the Holidays and travelling to London for the Olympia Horse Show. It was an amazing experience, we loved every minute of it! We had not seen so many people at a horse show since the World Equestrian Games in Aachen. It was great to expose our saddle pads (aka Numnahs) to the British market and we found the reception very positive indeed. Here is a little video of our trip.


Sorry, we couldn't film any of the performances (strictly forbidden!).
Wishing you a Happy, Healthy & successful 2009!

Patricia