Fitting Procedure

When I meet your horse

So you are thinking about buying a WOW saddle, what can you expect me to do when I come to meet your horse.

I will create a profile for your horse, this will include everything mentioned below. I will store all of the information that we gather.

Horse profile

• Height

• Weight

• Age

• Current workload, how many times per week does your horse work, what does he do when he works?

• Intended job in life, tell me what job this horse will be doing, will he be mainly doing dressage, show jumping or eventing or are you one of those lucky people who has a horse that likes to do everything.

• Aspirations, what level would you like this horse to get to?

• Past problems, tell me of any past problems, has the horse been cold backed or had any known back problems such as kissing spine? Does his usual saddle slip to the left or to the right? Do you find you have to over tighten your girth to stop the saddle riding up his neck or slipping backwards?

• Template, I will take a template of your horses back, this will help to track any changes in the future.

This information will all be brought together to help find the perfect saddle for your horse.

Once I am happy that I know what you are wanting from your horse, we will move onto the regular rider profile

Rider profile

• Height

• Approx weight

• Ability, it doesn’t matter if you are a beginner or a seasoned competitor, knowing your ability will enable me to guide you in the correct direction to finding your ideal saddle.

• What sphere are you aiming for, something specific like dressage, show-jumping or cross country or do you wish to ride in all the different sphere’s?

• Aspirations, what level would you like to ride at, how often would you like to compete?

So now I have an idea of what you and your horse would like I can start putting a saddle together.  Now the fun begins, this is where we get to play around with the saddle and you get to see the huge amount of variation WOW can offer.  If you don’t like the feel of anything we can quite simply change it to try something else!

I will store all of the information we gather, we will then have a history to look back at in the coming months and years as your horse changes shape.

There are a few things ideally we do need on the day of the saddle fit, these will all help to ensure we get the perfect saddle for you and your horse.

What we need on the day

• A clean and dry horse, please have the horse in and dry, if he is warm, with relaxed muscles I will get a much truer picture.

• A good surface to work horse, ideally an arena or a flat area in the field, this will help to ensure that you are 100% happy with the fit and feel of the saddle.

• A well-lit area for me to alter the saddle, please let me know if this is difficult, I can then make other arrangements.

• A flat area to template, this ideally needs to be concrete or hand standing, this will help to get a true picture

• Plenty of time, fitting a WOW saddle does take some time and it isn’t a process that you will want to rush, for the first trial and fit you will need to allow two hours.

At the end of the day

By the end of the session, we should have found the perfect saddle for you and your horse, you should be happy with the look and feel of your saddle and your horse should be swinging along in a happy, free rhythm.  I will then order your saddle, in the colours, style and material required and advise how long it will take for your beautiful new saddle to be made.