if you ask for a 2nd opinion on a saddle....

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clairefeekerry1

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are most likely to say it doesnt fit and try get you to buy one of them??? or am i just being synical??!!! are they really going to give you an honest opinion and say i agree totally with the previous saddler it fits perfectly,there is nothing further i can add..... or are they more likely to say it doesnt really fit, i have one here that will do perfectly...?
 
I had a saddle fitter refuse to come out to check if a saddle fitted would only come if I wanted to buy a saddle from him. I've since discovered the saddles I had didn't fit him so I'm in the market for a new saddle ...guess which saddler I won't be ringing!
 
I do think that is the case sometimes, I have had three different saddlers look at my saddle since I bought it from a diff saddler, one said it fits and dont worry, then the best part is two came out on different occasions from the same company (I moved from Notts to Herts) and the one in Notts said it would never ever fit him its totally the wrong shape etc (which i could see wasnt really the case it just needed reflocking) so when I moved got the same company out and they sent someone else who said it fits just needs reflocking like I originally thought!! Some people ;)
 
That's the reason I drag my saddler over from a different area and pay over the odds for mileage. She won't try to sell you something if you don't need it. She's happily check any saddle for you and will give you an honest opinion.
 
We have a saddler in our area who doesn't sell saddles, just mends and alters as well as making side saddles. I trust him because he's not trying to sell me anything.
 
I had a saddler out on the reccomendation of my vet following problems potentially caused by a saddle that I had fit by someone else and saddler said it was fine for the horse but didnt fit me properly. He didnt try to sell me another saddle. I was quite suprised really as I thought he would.
 
I had one of our livery's saddlers measure my horse for a saddle when they came to check the fit of her £2k saddles (one dressage and one SJ that the saddler had sold her. They asked me what kind of price I wanted to pay, and when I said I would prefer a second hand one, and the budget was about £500, they never rang back -even after the £50/horse session! The same saddler had to come back to the livery after a new instructor said that the saddle didn't fit the rider, and the saddler said "yes I thought that it didn't suit you, but you really seemed to like it!" The saddler bought it back for £1500 and sold the livery another £2k plus saddle! Years later I met someone who knew the saddler, and they said he had a porche collection! Didn't surprise me!

Not all saddlers are like that. There are some honest ones around. I think there are a lot of new type horsey people around nowadays, who don't have much experience when they buy their horse, and will pay/buy what "experts" say without much question, so there was bound to be a few folk make a fast buck or two from it. You just have to find someone that you trust, or that people that you know use...
 
I am mid saddle palava at the moment!
had a lady who is quite highly regarded come out who charged me £49 for her services, did a lot of talking but not a lot else and promptly told me that i needed a cob specific saddle, fine, she had one at £450, if i dont buy a saddle from her she wont come back out to fit another, if i do she will come back to re-fit for free.
£450 is a bit out of my budget! i will be enlisting the help of another fitter after loaning a cob saddle from a friend with view to buying...for £100!
i understand that she must charge for her services but she is at the pricey end of the market and not offering a very fair deal!
 
I contacted the Master Saddler Association recently with a view to becoming a freelance saddler fitter and I wanted to access the training, but not necessarily be affiliated to a particular shop/brand.

My idea was to set up completely independantly fitting with a small stock of used and new saddles, but mainly offering fitting & flocking/repair and where necessary, I would help someone source a saddle. I was told in no uncertain terms that there was no way I could access the Master Saddler training or affliation as there was no market for an independent fitter who mainly wanted to just fit saddles and not sell them!.
 
Baileyhoss said:
I contacted the Master Saddler Association recently with a view to becoming a freelance saddler fitter and I wanted to access the training, but not necessarily be affiliated to a particular shop/brand.

My idea was to set up completely independantly fitting with a small stock of used and new saddles, but mainly offering fitting & flocking/repair and where necessary, I would help someone source a saddle. I was told in no uncertain terms that there was no way I could access the Master Saddler training or affliation as there was no market for an independent fitter who mainly wanted to just fit saddles and not sell them!.
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That sounds very peculiar, we have a saddler in our area, who doesn't sell saddles, she fits, alters and also works with side-saddles. She does work with a local tack-shop and will bring saddles from there if you want her to but is very happy not to.
 
She may not have the master saddler qualifications/training though. Unless she did them whilst affiliated to a company or supplier, then went freelance.

There is nothing stopping me setting up on my own, I just couldn't access MSA.

I think that's a huge unneccesary barrier to gaining training and skills and it encourages unqualified 'fitters' to set up. It's so hard to find people with recognised training who will offer checks, that customers end up using unqualified fitters.
 
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