WOW is the first manufacturer to use pressure testing to design and develop new products, starting with FLAIR in 1996. Flair has been independently tested using the most up to date pressure testing mat manufactured by Novell and is called the Pliance system.
You can learn more about Pliance by visiting their web site www.pliance.com
Please note this print out is not Flair and comes from the Pliance website and is purely to demonstrate the system in action.
This mat has 256 inch square sensors that are placed under the saddle like a numnah. The mat gives a pressure picture every 25ms or 40 frames per second. In this way we can get the best understanding of what goes on under the saddle.
Flair Pressure Testing
The pressure testing results document (Flair Pressure Testing) you can download show the comparison of the same Rider, Saddle & Horse, before and after conversion to Flair.
The testing and saddle fitting was carried out by Master Saddler Graham Butt, Master Saddler and qualified fitter, ex Master Saddler for King’s Troops on a Non-WOW saddle. This was to prove that he could flock a saddle as well with wool as we can with Flair. He couldn’t.
The Non-WOW saddle was re flocked with new wool flocking to maximise the fit. It was then compared to FLAIR air flocking using the same saddle, after being converted on the same day. The directors of FTE had no input into the testing, so it is totally unbiased. The maps show mean (average) over the period the saddle was under test.
HISO Asymmetric Pressure Testing
The document HISO is the results of pressure testing done at a HISO (Horses Inside Out) conference. The results illustrate the effect of the rider’s weight (centre of force) distribution before and after asymmetric air adjustment. The pictures are shown in terms of area, force and peak pressure.
HISO Asymmetric Pressure Testing
Show Jumping Pressure Testing
Pressure testing of Paul Tapner
