Leather on new bates caprilli cc saddle

[Rodolfo E.]

She is originally from the UK but now lives in New Zealand - the company here though has not got such a good name by many - some of the supposed 'Saddle fitters' that go out from the business are not too good at their job. Recently one of my Pony Club kids was sold a saddle by the company and I was constantly telling the rider she was sitting crooked. At break we looked at her new and very expensive saddle to find that one side was packed far more than the other. Parent contacted the company, person came out and declared the saddle was fine but she would put some more stuffing in the side that we believed was not so full! (No way was she going to admit she had done a bad job) Following the additional stuffing the saddle sits straight and the rider too and the child recently passed her B certificate.

If someone tells you they are qualified - ask for their certificate of qualification or go online to find out if they really are qualified. Do you have a really knowledgeable friend who can help you fit the saddle?


For you UK people - the list of Master Saddlers and saddle fitters in UK
http://www.mastersaddlers.co.uk/ListMembers.asp

This is a link to the page that tells you overseas is a qualified saddle fitter
http://www.mastersaddlers.co.uk/ then chose the tab at the side 'Qualified Saddle fitter - then follow the instructions to find the page for overseas saddle fitters

Tnavas, Thank you very much for the list. There are many western and charro (mexican style) saddle fitters but not English saddles that I know of. In fact, I don't think many people here are aware of the importance of saddle fit and the illness they may cause their horses if the saddle does not fit properly. Perhaps that lack of knowledge is derived from the fact that mexican and western saddles tend to fit more body types, not just one horse. Or at least we think.

Form the video the woman seemed to me pretty professional but then again, I know nothing about saddle fit so it is quite easy to impress me. I guess you never know.

Thanks again.

 

[Tnavas]

SBloom!
This is one of Josephine Dancy's videos if someone is interested. This are some of the guidelines I followed to draw my mare's back tracings.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Sv6HsDRqZNk

The Caprilli seemed to fit pretty well but I checked it today and it does seem to rock back and forth just a bit.

Informative video and taken at Little Valley Farm, Ohaupo in New Zealand, just 15kms from me - Jess is one of our really good Pony Club riders - she has an awesome horse called 'Too Predictable'. LVF is available for anyone to hire for just $20, Pony Club members $15 or £7.50 for as long as you like - there is a massive indoor arena, a permanent jumping arena and cross country course. Apologies for hijacking but it was neat to see Jess in the video.

 

[Rodolfo E.]

Apologies for hijacking but it was neat to see Jess in the video.

Lol! No apologies needed at all. It sounds like a great place to ride in, unfortunately for me, it's half a world away. Literally.

Who would have thought? I've been watching these videos like crazy for the past 4 months trying to get my tracings right. The world is indeed a smaller place nowadays, isn't it.
By the way, Jessica Woods appears in all three videos.

 

[Tnavas]

Lol! No apologies needed at all. It sounds like a great place to ride in, unfortunately for me, it's half a world away. Literally.

Who would have thought? I've been watching these videos like crazy for the past 4 months trying to get my tracings right. The world is indeed a smaller place nowadays, isn't it.
By the way, Jess appears in all three videos.

The world is small - the lady who lives at the end of my street went to the same school as me in the UK. Just a few years ahead of me. Its quite scarey!!

 

[Rodolfo E.]

And by the way, after all those months and long nights watching videos on YouTube and reading articles researching for proper saddle fit and basic horse training, grooming and diet, and after drawing the required tracings and driving all the way up to where the tack shop is thinking to my self that I was heading to a place where all my doubts were about to be solved and all my concerns would be understood; I finally got there, gave them the tracings, they stared at them speechless for about 6 seconds as if they were blueprints or hieroglyphics from an ancient culture; they put them to the side and said — you are about size 18, and these are the saddle's we stock.

should have seen that one coming from large retailers. Thoug the return policy is very good as I said before.

 

[sbloom]

I will, however, take a look at Kitt Hazelton's work, maybe send him an email and see how it goes. Thanks a lot for the tip Sbloom!

You could send HER an email lol, and yes, I too am female in case anyone asks. And in case anyone else asks cremedemonthe is not

The best leather has always been from Argentina - its the tanning process that made the leather the best - the tanning was done in UK and was always referred to as English Leather.

Bates is an International Brand as is its synthetic range Wintec.

You may be right about Argentinian origin leather, I am not a saddle maker nor expert in leather, cremedemonthe is likely to know the low down. I would be surprised if we were still getting our leather from there in the late 90s when BSE struck otherwise we'd not have had such a big impact on leather quality. And obviously with tanning going on under EU rules that has a massive effect.

Bates is Australian and owns Wintec, that is fairly common knowledge but companies are often rather sparing about where their leather comes from and where their saddles are assembled (and yes, synthetic treed saddles like Bates are assembled and not craftsman made).

 

[sbloom]

The Caprilli seemed to fit pretty well but I checked it today and it does seem to rock back and forth just a bit.

Not got time to watch right now but rocking is bad - derives usually from a tree that is too wide or is too curvy, or obviously can relate to details like panel shape and how the rails lie (the bits of the tree that run from front to back and have three aspects of shape, any of which could make a saddle rock if wrong).