Schleese Saddlery Service

Custom English Dressage & Jumping Saddles

Professionals Working Together

The Circle of Influence - Professionals Working Together for the Good of the Horse!

In recent years, people are becoming much more concerned that the saddle actually fits, and to this end "master" saddle fitters are cropping up left, right, and centre to do consultations and measurements on-site. The one person who was probably instrumental in this now being a ubiquitous necessity to sell a saddle is our own Certified Master Saddler Jochen Schleese.

When he was invited to Canada in 1986 from Germany to be the official saddler for the World Dressage Championships – held for the first time outside of Europe – an informal market survey revealed that, at that time, saddles were treated as commodity items - used, abused, broken, and thrown away if they didn't fit. No one did personal barn calls, or could even properly fit a saddle.

Taking a saddle apart is easy; putting it together again properly is a whole other story. It was this personalized one-on-one service upon which Schleese began to build our business, and we are gratified to see that it is now becoming the rule rather than the exception to take the horse's conformational requirements into consideration. One pervasive problem we do encounter, however, is that a lot of what is being said and written is simply opinion, and not necessarily always based in fact. You (as the rider) have at your disposal a whole slew of professionals, who are obviously experts in one area within the “circle of influence to the horse”. Yet the buck ultimately stops with the rider himself – whatever is suggested has to work for the rider.

You can listen to the “opinions” of veterinarians on saddle fit, to the “opinions” of farriers with respect to lameness, etc. Yet when it comes down to it – whom do you actually want addressing the particular problem? Is the veterinarian actually capable of adjusting a saddle? Is the farrier actually capable of administering a shot to the stifle?
No.
You leave that up to the professionals in their area of expertise, and you trust that they are going to do what is right “in their professional opinion”. It is always a concern when, after the fact, a professional comes in and criticizes the work and solutions offered by another. This is most often, quite frankly, the trainer, who seems to have an inordinate amount of “say” in what is done, bought, or used without always having the benefit of the requisite information or education to go along with the “opinion”.

Schleese is a great proponent of the entire "circle of influence" theory behind maximizing performance – a cooperative effort of all equine professionals, working together, to determine the proper mix. For example, a saddle can fit perfectly one day, and the next day the farrier will come in and reshoe; and presto, the saddle no longer fits as well. Communication among all those involved in the maximization of performance and well-being goes a long way. That being said, there is also one part of the equation that is often neglected - the importance of the saddle fit to the rider. In actual fact, it is much easier to fit a saddle to a horse. There are many more measurements and conformational relationships which come into play in ensuring that the rider is actually in a saddle that fits, is comfortable, and allows him/her to concentrate on riding rather than fighting the saddle to get into the proper, comfortable position. It is a fact we have discovered, that no matter how well a saddle may fit a horse, if it doesn't fit the rider comfortably and correctly, the horse will soon not be working to its full potential either, because it will feel the rider fighting the saddle.

Your Circle of Influence