perforating both the honeycomb core and the facings the weight of the material is reduced while the resiliency and flexibility is increased the weight is reduced because perforations reduce the overall quantity of the material comprising the honeycomb and facing similarly the flexibility is increased because there is less material to constrain each segment of the material from bending the resiliency or ability of the structure to spring back to its original form from being compressed is also enhanced by virtue of the additional passages through which air can return to fill the cells it will be appreciated that the resilient but damped restorative characteristics of the structure make it an excellent absorber of shock waves 0035 fig3 illustrates how the honeycomb cellular structure contours to the horse 39 s back and provides uniform load distribution and fig4 illustrates how the honeycomb cells align themselves perpendicular to the horse 39 s back and flex with movement to reduce sheer forces against the horse 39 s skin 0036 fig5 illustrates a western saddle pad provided on each side with a zippered panel 50 which contains a removable honeycomb insert the underside is lined with breathable wool that works with the ventilated honeycomb to keep the horse 39 s back cool the top line of the pad is split and connected with breathable wool to further promote ventilation ample honeycomb in the rear of the pad easily accommodates the extra weight of saddle bags in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention in.