Jochen Schleese's Blog – March 2011 Archive (4)

Saddle Fit and Horse Ownership

“Should people be required to attend an equine education course and pass an assessment before being allowed to own a horse?”

To this question in the Feb. issue of Horse Journals I would reply without reservation - emphatically ‘yes’! However, I also think that people who want to have children be subjected to the same battery of courses and assessments; you need licenses to fish, to hunt, to drive – but any idiot is allowed to become a parent (which is arguably the most difficult job…

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Added by Jochen Schleese on March 31, 2011 at 8:00am — 1 Comment

Saddle Fit and Media Articles

I have to comment on a couple of articles which recently appeared in Holistic Horse – the Feb/Mar 2011 edition. The first one was about “Weekend Warriors - Avoid battles during your horse time”. According to the dictionary, this phrase came into being in 1981 to reflect the average person’s increasingly hectic lifestyle. Free time has felt increasingly compressed, with the result that on the weekend you hit the ground running to get the most of your horse time. Often you pay the price on…

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Added by Jochen Schleese on March 21, 2011 at 8:00am — No Comments

Saddle Fit and Saddles That Don’t Fit!

I am presently still off and on working in Florida until the beginning of April. I recently went out to fit one of our saddles for a client to a horse (like I always do!), but what I experienced there truly troubled me to the point that I had to write about it.

The owner and the trainer were both not present; the groom brought out this lovely, sad, little horse. I have rarely encountered such a pathetic picture of absolute dejection and misuse – probably totally unknowingly – and I was… Continue

Added by Jochen Schleese on March 11, 2011 at 1:30pm — 5 Comments

Saddle Fit and Adjusting Your Saddle

This is an issue which has arisen time and time again – I hear it all the time. “I bought a custom saddle [note on tangent – there is a lot of misconception of what truly construes ‘custom’ anything – but I digress] and I expect it to fit me and my horse for as long as we live and never need adjusting”. Okay, that’s a bit exaggerated, but I think you may understand where I’m going with this. True, you may be lucky and find a saddle that you feel is comfortable for you and you feel…

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Added by Jochen Schleese on March 1, 2011 at 12:00pm — 2 Comments