A happy comfortable Charlotte!
Lorette wanted a dressage saddle for her 10 year old KWPN mare (Negro X Cabochon), Charlotte. The mare had been working at M1 level in The Netherlands before a 4 year foal break. She was back in training but not quite to her old shape and musculature. She has a flat, straight back and round ribs. Lorette’s constant problem has been saddles sliding forward over Charlotte’s shoulder, the one saddle that didn’t, an Amerigo close contact was not the right saddle for Lorette.
Charlotte moving freely in her new saddle with Lorette in perfect balance.
Lorette came to us because she had been breaking in a horse for someone whose owner gave her her own saddle to use. It was an Ideal Roella. She tried it on her own horse and it fitted surprisingly well. Although not quite wide enough, it didn’t move forward! Eureka! It was also “a lovely saddle to ride in”.
Our initial thoughts for Lorette were that we are off to a good start with the Roella because one of the biggest problems for saddlers is saddles moving forward! The only suggestion might have been to consider the Suzannah which with its wider twist is slightly better for the horse. However, some riders find this saddle too wide and so the Roella was developed by Ideal along the same lines as the Suzannah but with the narrower twist for the more petite rider and finer horse. Lorette’s response was to do what was best for Charlotte but Lorette is slim, Charlotte is the finer type of Dutch Warmblood and Lorette had already said that the Amerigo, with the wider tree, was not the saddle for her. So, we suggested she stick with her first choice.
Charlotte poses for her fitting!
The next key issue was the width of the tree. Lorette was very concerned over this because in the past, even with a custom made saddle, trees had not been wide enough and constricted and impacted Charlotte’s movement even to the point that she lost shoes. The saddle she had tried was a “wide”. Having seen the templates of Charlotte’s back, Ian agreed with Lorette that her horse is deceptively wide. Ideal do a fitting in between W and XW, the W+ and he thought this would be our starting point. He and his team would then fine tune the fit from there and the custom flock would create a flatter shape in response to the horse’s flat back.
Lorette had also mentioned (and the templates revealed) an unevenness in Charlotte’s back, one side versus the other. However, Ian considers this as not material to the flocking of the saddle. Other than in exceptional circumstances, he is not a believer in adjusting the flock to “build up” one side, believing that it works better the other way round ie the flocking molds to the horse’s shape rather than he molding the flocking to the horse’s shape. He also thought that given her shape, the saddle would benefit from a deeper rear gusset. When a horse is higher at the wither and falls away, a deeper rear gusset allows greater leeway in the flocking to create a saddle in balance, which is when the deepest part of the seat is in the centre of the saddle. Conversely, when a horse is croup high, a shallower rear gusset similarly helps create a saddle in balance.
Lorette had no special requirements in terms of block shape and positioning, flaps, depth of seat etc so the saddle was a standard order in that respect. The key issue was the fit and stability on Charlotte.
After Lorette had received her saddle, we were thrilled to receive the following:
Hi Jane
It’s lovely! I’ve won the competition level M today with the saddle. I truly love the saddle. Many thanks!
A very happy customer – Lorette.