“I just wanted to say the biggest thank you to my SMART Advisor who came out after an initial conversation I had with the lovely team at the SMART Saddles office. Both my horse and I absolutely love our SMART saddle!”
I had lost all hope of finding a saddle that would match both my horse and I. She is quite short in the saddle area, therefore finding a saddle to fit proved nearly impossible.
We bought Goonzion Athena (Tia) as a family pony as a six-month-old for my daughter and I to share. She was very lightly backed last year by my young daughter and we had a new synthetic 15” saddle fitted to them both, which worked really well for the few months before Tia had the winter off.
This year I wanted to bring on Tia’s education slowly and get her used to being ridden out independently which was when the saddle issues started. I re-started her bareback and was told by the physio that she was coping well with the little ridden work she was doing. It was confirmed that she was ready to start doing a little more and very gradually build up, but then we couldn’t find a saddle to fit an adult rider as well as be comfortable for my 11 year old daughter. I phoned several specialist saddle companies and explained the situation, but no-one was able to help us.
As she’s 14.2hh and our family horse, this was devastating news and I lost a lot of confidence thinking that we wouldn’t get a saddle to fit both her and an adult rider. I was worried that we’d have to stay bareback or just have an expensive ‘field ornament’ of a horse. Despite getting reassurance from her physio and several vets from our practice that she was a great size for a family horse, I was starting to get quite depressed.
After our SMART Advisor came out, not only did she do an amazing assessment on Tia’s confirmation and matching a saddle to fit both her and myself, she also gave me my confidence back again to be on board.
We go out on short rides more days than not. I love that I can really feel Tia move under the saddle and it’s been so useful in helping me transfer what she learned from groundwork to under saddle. In just a few weeks she’s really come on and is absolutely loving going out. Even when she loves it a little too much, the saddle still stays perfectly in place and doesn’t move !
I’m just so impressed with the fit and so pleased with how Tia is going and how freely she can move. She is the type to let you know her thoughts, so I know that she’s extremely happy with her SMART Saddle. I’m really looking forward to the next few years with her where we start looking at introducing fun rides and jumping.
It’s so reassuring to know there is research behind the SMART saddles and that her saddle can be easily adjusted to fit her as she changes shape. The reviews we read prior to purchase were superior to many other saddles and it was lovely chatting to such knowledgeable people over the phone. Having a happy, confident horse that loves going out is so important to me. We’ve invested so many hours in getting everything just right for her and in her training, it’s now lovely getting out and about with her. Getting the right saddle was paramount in continuing her educational and keeping everything positive for her.
Thanks so much to the SMART Saddles team and thanks to our Advisor who solved our saddle woes with fitting Tia and I with the SMART Elite Event saddle!
Kerry.
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