DefinitelyDressage.com

Hi there,

I have the chance at a Bates Isabella with a CAIR system and interchangeable gullets for a reasonable price. Pros and cons of CAIR?

Thanks in advance!

This is the Cair panel:

So as you can see, it is actually two air bladders, one in the front and one in the rear of each panel. From the top you can better appreciate the overlap:



Those 3 inches of overlap create a very noticeable lump right over the part of your horse's back that you will expect to lift most. It won't be a problem in a brand new saddle, but within a year or two it will likely become a problem.

Pros: they are easy to covert to wool.

It depends on the horse. My mare loves CAIR, and I'm thrilled that she likes the $900 saddle better than the $4K saddle. Some horses don't like it, apparently, but I am convinced that there is a snob factor going on as well. I.e., the dressage world is now so elitist that everyone has been brainwashed to believe that only pricey things are good. This works beautifully for the saddle companies, of course. I choose not to play along.

I have 2 almost identical saddles (a 17" and a 17.5"). One has CAIR and the other doesn't, and I've never been able to see or feel any difference in the way my horse goes when I switch saddles. I've had both saddles for more than a year, and ride the bigger one more in the winter to accommodate snowpants, and the smaller one during the summer.

some find them "bouncy". They are not adjustable but some of the new models have shims that can be added. Some feel that air bladders in general are better in a more moderate climate as air pressure can affect them and sometimes they need a bit of warm up time to settle on the back.
Ideally, they should disperse pressure, equalizing it throughout the back.

Thanks for the info, I ended up passing on the CAIR saddle.

I did a few days with a saddle fitter - fitting/adjusting etc. When I saw a Cair panel I was surprised! Wasn't what I thought.
If it fits the horse then that's great, but it is so much harder to adjust a cair saddle. I will always stick to flocking now, mostly for that reason.