The Saddle Biz

Saddles, Saddle Fitting, and Technology: Can They Play Well Together?

We posted a shorter version of the following here, though that post is not yet up.   In any case, take a look at that post for the context of this one. Thanks for sharing your experience with Novel Pliance and the TeamSattletest systems. What a worthwhile effort! You probably know about the pressure-testing “research” (and I use the term quite loosely) that has been going on in the UK,...

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A Short(ish) Treatise on Saddle Fitting

This article appears in an edited version here.  I wrote it in response to this article on The Chronicle of the Horse website. Anyone who has been around horses long enough is familiar with this fundamental law of the riding universe: For every expert, there is an equal and opposite expert. While other sports have forged ahead with science-based research to improve not only athletic performance...

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What makes a saddle worth what it costs (Part 3)

This photo has nothing to do with saddles or the saddle biz, but we thought we'd put it here anyway. By the way, Llewie's on the left, Tiger on the right. (c) Advanced Saddle Fit 2000-2010 The way the product is produced also affects the final price, which is how rational markets work, up to a point. But rational is not the first word I would be inclined to use in describing the saddle...

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What makes a saddle worth what it costs? (Part 2)

Frankly, it’s not easy to acquire the technical expertise to be able to assess the quality and value of a saddle or bridle.  Since we don’t have an industrial base producing these products in the United States, we don’t have a lot of home-grown experts with experience manufacturing them.  Moreover, the value someone places on a product is subjective, and nowhere is this more true than in...

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So you want to be a saddle fitter. Really?

We are often asked what’s involved in becoming a saddle fitter.  First, I think you have to distinguish between a saddle fitter and a saddle company rep.   Of the companies that have their own reps, they all run somewhat similarly, as far as I am aware.  Most brands require that you have a package of your own saddles to demo and order from (or maybe they would let you sell and...

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The Soul of the Saddle

Patrick Keane Dressage Saddle from Advanced Saddle Fit It’s simply incredible to us Americans (or at least to me) how truly “cottage” much of the saddle industry is in the UK, where all of our saddles are made.  It’s extremely human-intensive in comparison to some of the big French, Italian, and other European saddle makers who turn out extraordinarily consistent saddles...

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