Best Ogilvy Pads for the Eventer Riding Multiple Disciplines (2026)
Eventers ask more of their tack than almost any other discipline. You’re not optimizing for one job — you’re asking the same horse, the same saddle, and the same pads to perform in the dressage ring on Saturday morning, over stadium fences in the afternoon, and across cross-country terrain where speed and terrain change what your horse’s back is doing beneath you. Most riders default to one pad setup and hope for the best. But if you’re trying to get the most out of your horse across all three phases, the gear you choose under your saddle actually matters more than you might think. Here’s what I recommend, and why.
This post contains affiliate links. If you shop through them I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you — and you’ll get my reader discount. I only feature gear I’d actually put on my own horses or wear for a full day in the saddle.
What an Eventer Actually Needs from a Pad
Before getting into specific products, it’s worth being honest about what the multi-discipline rider is solving for. In dressage, you want pressure distribution, clearance at the withers, and nothing that adds unnecessary bulk under the flap. In stadium, you want security — the pad should move with the horse and not shift when the front feet leave the ground. On cross-country, friction becomes the central problem. At speed over uneven terrain, a horse’s back moves more dramatically than it does at any other gait, and any pad that generates friction on sensitive skin will cause rubs before you’re halfway through the course.
The two Ogilvy products that solve for all three phases without requiring you to swap pads between disciplines are the Profile Pad and the Friction Free. Used together, they cover every phase efficiently.
The Profile Pad: Your Foundation Across All Three Phases
The Classic Jump Profile Pad ($85) and the Classic Dressage Profile Pad ($85) are the pads I’d put under every eventer’s tack trunk first.
Here’s what the Profile Pad actually does: it’s a contoured pad designed to provide wither clearance and conform to the shape of the horse’s back. It’s not a half pad — it’s not adding cushion on top of cushion. What it’s doing is making sure your saddle sits in the right relationship to your horse’s topline without the saddle dropping forward or bridging across the back.
For the eventer, the profile cut matters for a specific reason. When you’re moving between phases, your horse’s muscles are warming up and working differently. A pad that lifts cleanly at the wither without creating pressure at the front of the panels gives you more consistency across all three jobs. I’ve seen horses that looked like they had contact issues in their dressage test turn out to be bracing against saddle pressure at the withers. The Profile Pad addresses that without adding bulk that would interfere with the jump position.
Jump vs. Dressage cut: The jump pad has a shorter point pocket and a trimmer profile under the flap — if you’re riding predominantly in a jump saddle across all three phases (which many event riders do, especially at the lower levels), go with the jump cut. If you’re using a dedicated dressage saddle in the ring and a jump saddle for the other two phases, you may want both cuts, or you may find the jump profile pad sits cleanly under your dressage saddle anyway. This depends on your saddle’s panel shape — worth checking before you buy.
Who this suits: The Profile Pad is the right answer for horses who need clearance more than cushion. If your horse is well-muscled through the back and your saddle fits 85% of the way but drops a little at the pommel or has mild wither contact, this is your pad. It is not the answer for the horse with significant asymmetry or a saddle that genuinely doesn’t fit — for those horses, you’d want to look at the Shimmable Half Pad with inserts instead.
Who it doesn’t suit: Horses with significant bridging or a saddle that needs real corrective shimming. The Profile Pad conforms and lifts; it doesn’t correct. Know the difference before you spend the money.
If you want the option to personalize colors and binding — which matters if you’re competing at events where your turnout is visible — the Custom Jump Profile Pad and Custom Dressage Profile Pad are both $85 — same price, more options.
The Friction Free: The XC Phase Pad You Actually Need
The Classic Cross Country Friction Free ($170) is the pad I’d argue every eventer needs in their kit, full stop.
Here’s the thing about cross-country: the phase that looks the most exciting is also the phase where your horse’s back is working hardest and moving the most dynamically. You’re asking for lengthening across terrain, collection in the approach, jumping efforts over solid fences. The horse’s back oscillates more, and the saddle moves with it. If your pad generates friction against your horse’s skin during all of that movement, you’re going to end up with rubs, galls, and a horse who starts to associate XC work with discomfort.
The Friction Free pad uses a low-friction material specifically designed to allow the saddle to move with the horse rather than dragging across the skin. This is not a marketing distinction — it is a meaningful physical difference from cotton or quilted materials, and it matters most at speed and over fences.
The Custom Cross Country Friction Free is also $170 if you want color options for your cross-country colors.
The honest tradeoff: The Friction Free is a dedicated XC pad, not an everyday schooling pad. If you’re hacking out and flatting in it, you’re not getting anything you wouldn’t get from a profile pad, and you’re burning hours off a pad that has a specific job to do. Use it for XC schooling and competition. Use the Profile Pad for dressage and stadium work. That’s the system that makes sense for the serious eventer.
Who this suits: Any horse who is rub-prone, has sensitive skin, or is doing regular cross-country work. Also the right call if you’re stepping up the mileage in a competition season — the more XC your horse does, the more friction accumulates, even on horses who aren’t especially sensitive.
Who it doesn’t suit: If your horse has never shown any friction sensitivity and your XC program is light, you might not feel the difference immediately. But prevention is cheaper than management once rubs develop.
Ready to try the Ogilvy Profile Pad and Friction Free together? Use code SAMANTHABAER10 for 10% off at Ogilvy Equestrian → https://ogilvyequestrian.com/samanthabaer
How to Use Them Together: A Practical System
Most eventers I know run one or two Ogilvy pads and reach for whichever one happens to be clean. That’s not a system — that’s winging it.
Here’s what I’d actually recommend for a rider competing at any recognized level or doing serious eventing training:
Dressage and stadium: Profile Pad (jump or dressage cut depending on your saddle). This is your everyday workhorse pad. It sits clean under the saddle, maintains clearance, and keeps your saddle in the right position across flatwork and fences.
Cross-country: Friction Free. Full stop. Swap it in for XC schooling and competition. Swap it back out for everything else.
This is a clean, efficient two-pad system that doesn’t require you to overthink it. The total investment for both is $255 before the discount — less with the reader code. For a sport where we routinely spend significant money on saddle fittings, veterinary work, and entry fees, protecting that investment with the right pad system is not a place to cut corners.
If you want to go deeper on the saddle fit conversation — specifically how a horse’s back changes through a season of competition and why that matters for pad selection — I talked through some of this on the podcast. Worth a listen if you’re heading into a heavy fall competition schedule.
One More Option Worth Knowing: The Jump Friction Free
If your horse also tends to show friction sensitivity in the stadium phase — particularly if you’re doing back-to-back stadium rounds in summer heat — the Classic Jump Friction Free ($170) is worth considering as a third pad in the rotation. Some horses, especially thinner-skinned warmbloods, will develop rubs from any repetitive friction, and stadium courses in summer heat generate more sweat and movement than a schooling session does.
That said, most horses do fine with the Profile Pad for stadium and reserve the Friction Free for cross-country. Know your horse.
The Bottom Line
The eventer doesn’t need ten pads. You need the right two pads used correctly:
| Phase | Recommended Pad | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Dressage | Classic Dressage Profile Pad or Classic Jump Profile Pad | $85 |
| Stadium | Classic Jump Profile Pad | $85 |
| Cross-Country | Classic Cross Country Friction Free | $170 |
Both products address the specific mechanical demands of eventing — clearance and conformity across flatwork and fences, low friction and skin protection across XC terrain. Neither is doing a job the other can cover. That’s what makes the combination worth it.
If you want to customize colors to match your competition turnout across all three phases, the Custom versions of both pads are available at the same price points and are worth the five minutes it takes to configure them.
Ready to build your eventing pad setup? Use code SAMANTHABAER10 for 10% off → https://ogilvyequestrian.com/samanthabaer
