Specific make saddle fitting?

[MagicMelon]

I potentially may have the opportunity to become a saddle fitter for a specific saddle brand. I am not qualified in any way however to fit saddles. On looking at the Master Saddlery website, it seems to suggest it would cost £2,000 to do a course on general saddle fitting and I have to buy 25 saddles?! But issue is I wouldnt be selling any type of saddle like many fitters currently do. These ones arent traditional saddles. I know people who fit and sell specific brands of saddle and have done courses with the brands - so do you not have to become a qualified saddle fitter to do this???

 

[SpringArising]

Could the company you'd be fitting for not answer this? (not said in a snarky way, just curious!)

 

[Wheels]

You don't have to be qualified to sell saddles

Most of the training provided by saddle companies is more on brand specific product training rather than actual saddle fitting and so I would be wary of only doing a short few days course with saddle makers without embarking on proper training also which would incorporate much more theoretical and practical based training

If you want to pm me then happy to help - i am a qualified saddle fitter (currently non practising) and have done brand specific training with a number of companies

 

[SpringArising]

You don't have to be qualified to sell saddles

No but MM said she would be fitting them!

 

[Wheels]

Well you don't have to be qualified to fit them either

 

[SpringArising]

Really? So any Tom Dick or Harry could go out tomorrow and fit saddles as a 'saddle fitter', and not get into any trouble? That's pretty concerning...

It says on the Master Saddlers website that to be a saddle fitter "They will have been fitting saddles for a minimum of 3 years and hold the Society of Master Saddlers’ Qualified Saddle Fitters Certificate".

 

[sbloom]

I would not want to be working for a company that insisted I buy a certain number of saddles, I am an agent for the brand I work for and do not own the stock. I know one company that has set up all sorts of fitters over the years, who, at the time, all had to buy I think 15 saddles...a really easy way to sell a job lot of saddles! The fitters all thought that at least they could sell the saddles if everything went wrong, but if the usual saddles sold are custom, and these are demos, AND you've left the company so they'd come without proper backup....I'd be very wary.

I was trained by only my company, I personally do not go far off that track, I see plenty of people who have done very short course with a certain maker and seller of their own brand of both leather and mixed material saddles, and then profess to be able to fit anything.

The three routes to being a qualified saddle fitter are SMS QSF, MSFC and SaddleFit4Life, all very different, totally different ways of training and different costs. And actually fairly different saddle fitting philosphies. The first is a slightly closed shop in that spaces are limited and you need to apprentice in most cases, the second more open, rather theoretical overall, and the third is an alternative say of fitting saddles really geared up around their own brand but marketed as universal.

 

[Wheels]

Really? So any Tom Dick or Harry could go out tomorrow and fit saddles as a 'saddle fitter', and not get into any trouble? That's pretty concerning...

It says on the Master Saddlers website that to be a saddle fitter "They will have been fitting saddles for a minimum of 3 years and hold the Society of Master Saddlers’ Qualified Saddle Fitters Certificate".

Yes it is concerning isn't it? But unfortunately is the case.

As Steph says there are several qualifications out there, not just the SMS but the reality is that some fitters will not have had any formal training, some will have had a 1/2/3 day course for a specific brand and some will have had more intensive and / or apprenticeship type training.

 

[sbloom]

Really? So any Tom Dick or Harry could go out tomorrow and fit saddles as a 'saddle fitter', and not get into any trouble? That's pretty concerning...

It says on the Master Saddlers website that to be a saddle fitter "They will have been fitting saddles for a minimum of 3 years and hold the Society of Master Saddlers’ Qualified Saddle Fitters Certificate".

The former is non-qualified, the latter is qualified and regulated. There are plenty of good and bad in both categories as you will see from peoples experiences - I am non-qualified but have a good reputation. For me to go and get qualified would cost a lot of money, take me away from customers who need me out checking their saddles, and really bring me little benefit so I stay as I am.

It DOES show how important it is that you check reviews. Don't just ask on here or FB for a quick survey of opinions or recommendations, go and really read up, search Google to see a big range of discussions on here and elsewhere, ask people WHY they recommend a saddle fitter, it's too easy for people to think someone is fab, no idea why, and 6 months later to realise they weren't that great. Or that they think someone is good because they're cheap and turn up on time. The classic is where people say "never tries to sell you a new saddle", I have seen plenty of those where they assumed that makes the fitter the good guy, but the fit was still poor.

 

[SpringArising]

Do you need to go through exams before you are able to fit for all of those routes SB? And are the exams done by an external party or by the company you'd be fitting for?

 

[SpringArising]

The former is non-qualified, the latter is qualified and regulated. There are plenty of good and bad in both categories as you will see from peoples experiences - I am non-qualified but have a good reputation. For me to go and get qualified would cost a lot of money, take me away from customers who need me out checking their saddles, and really bring me little benefit so I stay as I am.

It DOES show how important it is that you check reviews. Don't just ask on here or FB for a quick survey of opinions or recommendations, go and really read up, search Google to see a big range of discussions on here and elsewhere, ask people WHY they recommend a saddle fitter, it's too easy for people to think someone is fab, no idea why, and 6 months later to realise they weren't that great. Or that they think someone is good because they're cheap and turn up on time. The classic is where people say "never tries to sell you a new saddle", I have seen plenty of those where they assumed that makes the fitter the good guy, but the fit was still poor.

Sorry I posted before I saw this! Thanks for the info, really informative!

 

[sbloom]

OP I would also say that being a saddle fitter is damned hard, you must be multi talented, you will be self employed and need to promote yourself and do all the things required to run a small business, be able to plan journeys like a ninja, not mind driving miles and miles and having a really irregular schedule. You must be able to stay very calm under pressure, get on with everyone, and then be a good technical saddle fitter.

Plus have the skin of a rhino. You have seen the complaints on here about saddle fitters, please do not think they are all founded, it is a very tricky profession and many customers can be very challenging. Think of all the issues on livery yards, you will be dealing with all those sorts of people. I do not recommend it, I really don't. I know SO many ex saddle fitters.

 

[Leo Walker]

A good saddle fitter, particularly an independent one will always be in demand. You don't get to be a good saddle fitter on a one day course. I know at one point the Saddle Company were churning out fitters whose training was limited to 2 days!

 

[TPO]

A good saddle fitter, particularly an independent one will always be in demand. You don't get to be a good saddle fitter on a one day course. I know at one point the Saddle Company were churning out fitters whose training was limited to 2 days!

Yup, I'm one of them although it was a 1 day course back then!

The sms fitter that covered my area was awful. I also used to work weekends in the saddlery so dealt with a lot of customer complaints so I wasn't alone in that view. I saw the bad results of some of the fittings too (backs rubbed raw).

So I heard about saddle company saddles via a friend and they seemed to be highly recommended on an ex racer forum. They sounded ideal for my ex racer and another very underweight TB I'd bought. The saddles done the job until the horses changed shape (the saddles helped I believe) and there were no fitters in Scotland.

So I signed up on the course to be able to fit my horses. At that time I'd already done McTimoney-Corley and EBW training, as well as being a huge horse geek, so had covered saddle fitting as part of that. I was well read on the subject and felt prepared for the training...

At that time it was a 1 day course. It was all class room based and mainly focussed on how to adjust the saddle rather than fit them. I asked to stay an extra day and get practical training in reflocking, one other lady also came back for a second day. Worryingly one couple on the day course were complete novices and that was them off to set up as fitters...

I learnt what I needed to and bought the machine to adjust my saddles so was happy enough but in no way was that adequate training with no hands on experience to fit saddles if that was the only training someone had. That was 2009 so things might have changed.

I guess that's a long winded way of saying you can do short courses and be a brand fitter without being SMS. There are good and bad in both categories.

If you're setting yourself up as a fitter you get out what you put in. The more personal development you do the better at fitting you'll be. Go to as many demos and lectures as you can and read/watch as much as you can about a wide range of topics.

A lot of the prestige brands have their own fitters rather than be stocked in a saddlery.

 

[MagicMelon]

Thanks very much for the info everyone. Really helpful. I would absolutely intend to do as much training and research into fitting correctly as I think it would be very irresponsible of me (or anyone) not to. I just felt a bit horrified at the thought of finding a few thousand pounds and a few years to train!