Which thoughts cross your mind when you think about horse riding? In my mind I see little girls who dream about winning ribbons in equestrian tournaments, or I picture Europe’s royalty wearing ridiculously huge hats and feverishly watching the world-famous horse race at Ascot, or I even think of the lonesome cowboy from a renowned cigarette commercial galloping through the American prairie… Despite – or probably because of all these clichés about it, the popularity of horse riding as a hobby doesn’t seem to wear off… But one thing is sure: horse riding is, without doubt, quite a time-consuming and costly hobby.
One of the most important pieces of equipment a rider needs is a saddle. But don’t let yourself be fooled… Finding the right saddle for your horse and your specific discipline seems like an almost impossible task to me. After an extensive research on the internet, it becomes obvious that you can easily spend a small fortune on a saddle made from the finest leather and decorated with fancy silver clasps and ornaments which are typical for a western style saddle for example.
But these valuable saddles are often stored in draughty, unheated and easily accessible tack rooms where not only thieves have a walk-over but also moisture and mould. Musty smells and mould spots are a sure sign for too much humidity in the ambient air. All the metal pieces of a saddle can start to rust with a relative humidity of only 60 %, and when the relative humidity tops 70 %, mould begins to form on your saddle. Yet when the relative humidity is too low, the leather of your saddle can become brittle and chapped.
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