Master saddler/saddle fitter in Leicestershire

[helwhi]

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Hi! I've recently moved to the area and getting conflicting reviews about saddlers. I'm in need of a master saddler or saddle fitter in leicestershire that could come to my yard with some new or secondhand saddles to fit my boy.

He is a terribly awkward shape with high withers, muscle loss behind his shoulders, big shoulders, a swooping (or slightly swayed) back. Had multiple saddles on him which have been fit by a range of saddlers causing a range of problems such as:
-Increased loss behind the shoulder due to pinching
-Too low on his withers and coming into contact when i sit in the saddle
-Saddles locking behind his shoulders and the gullet being too tight for his shoulder blades to slide under
-Being unbalanced and it would be like i'm riding up hill and always being behind his movement
-Saddles bridging and untimately the tree bending/snapping because of his swooping back.

He's a 16.3hh Belgian Sports Horse, heavily thoroughbred influenced bloodlines. He's a showjumper but can never fit a jumping or close contact saddle so he's in a Frank Baines GP with a sheepskin pad to fill out his muscle lose and the thinner blue prolite foam pads shoved between the sheepskin and saddle at the back to balance the saddle. Want a saddle to jump in and a dressage saddle as he's starting to prove himself on the flat.

I've beginning to loose trust in saddlers!!

If anyone could recommend a trusting saddler or a saddle that would fit my boy that would a huge help! Thank you

 

[Dave's Mam]

Milners in John O'Gaunt get good reports.

 

[Alec Swan]

Many describe themselves as master Saddlers when they're anything but. The Master Saddler's Association is open to anyone, tack shops included! For a practising saddler to be referred to as a Master, means that he/she has apprentices working under his tutelage and there are very few in the UK, very few.

I'd suggest that you look for an independent saddler who is in the business of making saddles for himself. There used to be an exceptional man called Jeremy Rudge and he operated under the name of Stepping Stones Saddlery and he was in Walsall. I'm not sure if he's still in business. He used to make all the saddles that I sold and though he wasn't cheap, his work was out of the top drawer.

I wonder if it may be an idea for you to speak with Richard Brown, no one else and from Abbey Saddlery. They are loriners and suppliers and will almost certainly know where the best of the independents are to be found.

If your horse has tall and prominent withers then he'll need a cut-back head, perhaps a Lane-Fox. The rest of his problems will be (hopefully) overcome by regulating the flocking. The problem always with horses with a tendency towards a sway-back is that though the trees are made to one basic pattern, if they were altered to suit the horse, then the rider would be sitting in an overly deep seat, and that wouldn't work either! All negatives, I'm sorry.

Nothing to do with horses, but I occasionally call up around Melton Mowbray, and at no cost to you beyond a cup of tea, when I'm that way next, I'll have a look at him and at least give you an opinion, if that's any help.

Alec.