Saddle Fitting - Would there be a call for this?

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Baileyhoss

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Ok, I am looking at alternative careers and I strongly want to get back into working with horses. I worked at a livery/riding school in my younger years.

So I have been investigating saddle fitting training & qualification. It seems impossible to start up with SMS in my circumstances and there are no saddlers at all in Moray. So this is my plan:

Start up with the Equinenergy course, then work on a freelance basis.
The equinenergy course will then qualify me to do the SMS intro course and then after 3 years I could do the SMS saddle fitter qualification.

I would be completely unaffiliated to any seller or brand, but I would probably hold a small stock of 2nd hand saddles. I would purely fit, no alterations or flocking. I would advise clients on fit and if necessary and possible, how to make small adjustments with pads etc, until they are able to get a fully qualified saddler to make any necessary adjustments to their saddle.

The second hand stock could potentially provide them with an alternative if their saddle is absolutely no use, but my income wouldn't come from selling saddles if you know what I mean.

What do you think? - would you use me (assuming I was good), even if I couldn't make adjustments and wasn't working from a shop or SMS?
 
Why wouldn't you do any alterations? Surely there isn't much point in stocking secondhand saddles if you can't make any adjustments to the saddles so they fit the horses that you had been called out to see. I wouldn't make an appointment with a saddler if they could only fit saddles that fit 75% - I would rather see someone who had secondhand saddles that they could adjust to fit the horse 100%.

Sorry if that sounds blunt!!
 
There is no point in having someone bring a saddle out to me, if they cannot do a minor alteration to make it fit. For example, I lost a horse earlier this year, she was a medium fitting, my new horse is also a medium, but the saddle still needed a slight adjustmnent to the flocking and my local saddler came out, checked it, did the alteration and et voila I don't need to buy a new saddle. It only cost me £35 too. I have no idea how she does it for the money.
 
no that's exactly what I was concerned about. My problem is finding the training to make the alterations that is so difficult. According to Master Saddlers website, there are no qualified master saddlers up my way at all to train with and due to current job and commitments, i can't relocated for a lengthy period of training :(
 
I agree with the others re. alterations, often a saddle that fits can be made alot better with a small tweak. David May in Cumbria does a reflocking course - worth a look? (all the courses I have been on with him have been BRILLIANT!)
 
Interesting idea.
I was at a show recently and was staggered at the number of badly fitting saddles, not the pressing on the wither, knackered old saddle kind mind. These were £900+ saddles that I bet the owner paid to have fitted. No way did they fit, one saddle was sitting over to the right so badly I wanted to run after the rider and hold her on! Honestly out of 8 riders in the class I think 5 were in expensive but wrong saddles. Plus a horse I school is getting a new saddle and she told me the make, as advised by a professional fitter, and there is no way that particular saddle is going to fit her horse with his great big loaded shoulders!

However, to answer your question - would I use you if you couldn't make adjustments - probably not as I have 3 difficult to fit horses and you would be pushed to find a saddle to fit them from a small selection. The fact that you weren't a SMS saddler would not necessarily put me off if you were experienced, passionate about what you were doing, stocked good quality saddles and professional.

I would though be very very interested in a fitter who specialised in fitting difficult horses and/or someone to do minor repairs and reflocking would be most beneficial.

Am just musing here but to get a range of good quality secondhand saddles would cost a fair bit of money, I would think you might need 20+ saddles to get a fair chance of fitting. Quite a big outlay. If is important to note that a lot of people expect someone to come out, spend an afternoon trying on saddles and then get surprised be charged for your time!

Sorry seem to have waffled on here and despite the waffle I think it is worth a shot.:)
 
Baileyhoss said:
Very interesting. Thanks very much guys.

Hmmmmmm. Definately going to do more research here, but this could be the job for me. :D
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i hope you take this idea foreward as i would never book someone to just fit a saddle without being prepared to alter it, there is a dearth of saddle fitters but i am lucky here to have an excellent one and it is the only way to get a proper fitting saddle- i would never buy one without fitting first, so good luck with your plans.
 
Hi

I am looking to do saddle fitting and setting up my own business next year. I would not book someone who could not do alterations or reflocking as i also have horses that are difficult to get saddles for. I am going to go to Cumbria next year to do the reflocking and safe repairs course which i think would be great and are not long courses as i work full time and its impossible to go to college. I am also not going through the master saddlers as it seems so difficult to get on their courses. I am going to do the saddle fitting course that Nikki Routledge does and you can do that from home and then i will do some work experience with a saddle fitter and an equine massage therapist. I think this way you can get the experience and knowledge needed to start saddle fitting. I really think the cumbria courses would be great and they also do refresher courses if you want to make sure you are doing it right.
 
hi firstly i would use any one who isnt a sms saddler and saddlefitter.(two diffrent qualifictions)
and secondly my horse changes shape, with the seasons, and with the level work he his doing so i would want some one who could make the adjustments nessary, there would be no point calling you out to check the fit if you couldnt adjust the saddle ?
sorry to be a bit negative but...
anyways i hope you find away to do it!
 
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