Yes, folks, it will be available soon! I have worked solidly with my manufacturers for a year to perfect the design but had been trying it out on my own horses for over a year too, and also several friends horses of different shapes and sizes!
We wanted a leather tree, a very old way of making a flexible tree, as it allows us flexibility but with a totally 'normal' appearance, unlike most actual treeless saddles. So this is a flexible treed saddle, not treeless. It does have a hard gullet plate to stop the tree spreading on a wide horse, if the rider then wants to use it on a narrower one, so it has two widths, medium ( this is wide enough for a narrow horse that has atrophy, with additional padding to allow the muscle to redevelop) and wide to extra wide. The saddle being flexible, self levels throughout the rest of the length. It is extremely comfortable!
There is a new saddle fitting kit on the market which is a great idea, and has had good write ups in the trade press. Called the 'Perfect Fit Kit', it comprises a booklet and laminated cards plus Flexicurve, showing very precisely how to take a wither template. We will now stock these on our shop as they will really help customers gauge the correct width, and assist myself with advice on padding if needed. Our agents will of course come out to customers if needed, to advise, and also let them try the saddles.
The synthetic one will be the first to be released onto the market, and is really great quality. The flaps are not stiff and hard, but of a softer synthetic leather and the seat and knee pads are Clarino, the hard wearing washable synthetic suede, in expensive German breeches! This gives a very comfortable and secure seat!
The saddle is made by a young company in India. I never thought in a million years that I would have anything made over there, but the company owner, Rishahb Sharma, contacted me, then aged 20, via the British Equestrian Trade Association, , 5 years ago, about coming to work for me. I hadnt a job, so he went back to India and set about creating his own company. He had trained with a German company, well known and one that has long used leather trees in some of its saddles too. He isnt a saddler, but trained alongside theirs in marketing and wholesale, but needing to know the ins and outs of saddle making in order to maintain quality control.
This latter element I have impressed upon him until he can recount the mantra in his sleep!
We stayed in touch after his initial contact- it took me two years to stop him calling me ma'am!! lol! But when he sent me some samples of the bridlework, in finest Sedgewicks leather, that his company was producing, truly exquisite workmanship, I knew that I wanted him to make my new ranges of saddle. I have had so many production problems in Walsall, even just to try to get my SoftEE bridle made, that I made the decision to work with Rish.
He has been a delight to work with, all of the r and d has been done via skype as I couldnt get to India, due to caring for my elderly parents a lot now too. So it has probably taken longer to get to where we wanted, and the production will be limited to start with, but I can truly say I am proud of what Rish and his saddlers have achieved. I have been a hard taskmaster, but he knows it is for his own good too! He looks on me as his Mentor now, although sometimes he is still on skype talking to me in the early hours in India, and I am having to kick him off to make him go to bed, and feel more like his Mother!! ;D
But hopefully we will expand production as orders ( again hopefully!) start to come in. Rish is very ethical in how he treats his saddlers, and also is a very honourable young man who wants so badly to up the perception of Indian saddlery, at least, through his own company, Horsekraft Equestrian.
Moderators, if this is too much advertising, feel free to remove, but just wanted to inform further, those who had posted.
This is the FlexEE dressage :
The GP
The panels, which I have taken great care to ensure a good bearing surface and symmetry.
They will be in 16/17 and 18", black only in synthetic, and eventually in Sedgewicks finest leather, in black and brown at £799 intro price.
Heather