applecart14
Well-Known Member
Hi
For those of you that may remember I won a brand new saddle through a competition with a major horse publication in October 2012. The saddle, bridle and pad was around £2.2K in total.
To cut a long story short when the saddler came out to take a template the horse was not stood square, and when I attempted to make him stand square the saddle fitter was exasperated and said it wouldn't matter how the horse was stood, the template would be ok. When the saddle was eventually made and the same saddler came back to fit it to the horse, it was just plonked on his back and not even girthed up. I wasn't watched riding in it, days later the horse reacted badly to the saddle and bolted fly bucking around the arena and I ended up falling hard on my back and ended up in A&E. Since then the saddle has been reflocked four times and each time has only worked for a short period before the horse has ended up reacting again and the saddle 'dropping' onto the horses back due to the reflocking not being effective.
The latest time the flocking has gone right down and my physio reported that the saddle had hurt the horses back. The saddle was taken away by the very well known firm of saddlers and reflocked. The horse couldn't be ridden in the saddle when it came back as he had a foot issue, but when he became sound the saddle was even worse than ever (I think it had been overflocked in an attempt to make the flocking last longer) and the horse reacted badly in it immediately. I put on his old saddle and the horse was fine, no swishing, no attempting to put his head down and buck, able to canter in a fairly tight circle without problem, but the old saddle back on immediately, and the same issues occurred again, head down, tail swishing. The horse could not have said any clearer to me that the saddle hurt him so I vowed it would never sit on his back again. I have lost all confidence in the firm that provided it to me and it is up for sale. The saddle is a lovely smart saddle and is sure to fit another horse but will not fit mine. I think the tree is the wrong sort of tree for my horse's shape and no amount of reflocking will remedy that. The tree comes in two sizes; one for short backed horses and one for longer backed horses and I think I have the wrong one!
I have written to the saddler to inform him I want no further dealings with his firm in respect of this saddle (or any other for that matter) and I have informed the magazine of the incompetency of the said firm in case they have anyone else who wins a saddle off this company.
Its such a shame as in between flockings we were jumping metre show jumping tracks without a problem and the horse went very well in it. But its been reflocked four times in ten months with 8 weeks of that with the horse on box rest! Just not on.
For those of you that may remember I won a brand new saddle through a competition with a major horse publication in October 2012. The saddle, bridle and pad was around £2.2K in total.
To cut a long story short when the saddler came out to take a template the horse was not stood square, and when I attempted to make him stand square the saddle fitter was exasperated and said it wouldn't matter how the horse was stood, the template would be ok. When the saddle was eventually made and the same saddler came back to fit it to the horse, it was just plonked on his back and not even girthed up. I wasn't watched riding in it, days later the horse reacted badly to the saddle and bolted fly bucking around the arena and I ended up falling hard on my back and ended up in A&E. Since then the saddle has been reflocked four times and each time has only worked for a short period before the horse has ended up reacting again and the saddle 'dropping' onto the horses back due to the reflocking not being effective.
The latest time the flocking has gone right down and my physio reported that the saddle had hurt the horses back. The saddle was taken away by the very well known firm of saddlers and reflocked. The horse couldn't be ridden in the saddle when it came back as he had a foot issue, but when he became sound the saddle was even worse than ever (I think it had been overflocked in an attempt to make the flocking last longer) and the horse reacted badly in it immediately. I put on his old saddle and the horse was fine, no swishing, no attempting to put his head down and buck, able to canter in a fairly tight circle without problem, but the old saddle back on immediately, and the same issues occurred again, head down, tail swishing. The horse could not have said any clearer to me that the saddle hurt him so I vowed it would never sit on his back again. I have lost all confidence in the firm that provided it to me and it is up for sale. The saddle is a lovely smart saddle and is sure to fit another horse but will not fit mine. I think the tree is the wrong sort of tree for my horse's shape and no amount of reflocking will remedy that. The tree comes in two sizes; one for short backed horses and one for longer backed horses and I think I have the wrong one!
I have written to the saddler to inform him I want no further dealings with his firm in respect of this saddle (or any other for that matter) and I have informed the magazine of the incompetency of the said firm in case they have anyone else who wins a saddle off this company.
Its such a shame as in between flockings we were jumping metre show jumping tracks without a problem and the horse went very well in it. But its been reflocked four times in ten months with 8 weeks of that with the horse on box rest! Just not on.
