KEN'S COLUMN
Presents are meant to give pleasure!
Call me a misanthrope – a spoilsport – a Scrooge if you will - but there is something about this time of the year I dread! It relates to the numerous Christmas presents – bought with the best of intentions and expensive too – that are simply totally unsuitable!
Long have I preached about not buying a saddle as a present off the internet, through a tack sale, second-hand – or from the horse owner’s best friend’s mother’s boy friend – Uncle Tom Cobley and all!
I have no doubt that sensible readers are cringing – ‘how silly – it never happens’. But it does – on many, many, many occasions. In the past I have turned out on Christmas day at the behest of a distraught present-giver or a disappointed present-receiver, The saddest situations always involved children because their disappointment knew no bounds.
The worst case scenario I recall related to parents who had bought their ten year old daughter her first pony. Guided by the child’s instructor, they had found a really experienced, superbly mannered pony – perfect. I discovered the pony had been offered ‘complete with tack’ by the extremely knowledgeable vendors who were well known to the instructor. However, and unknown to the latter, the parents decided they wanted everything ‘new’ and not ‘second-hand’.
Having absolutely no idea of what was involved – and assuming it was all very simple – they took themselves off to a smart London shop and simplistically bought what they ’liked’! And what they ‘liked’ was absolutely top quality – superb materials and stunning craftsmanship.
Picture the scene. Christmas morning and expectations high…pretty pony immaculately groomed. Excited child in smart new jodhpurs. Smiling instructor who had kindly given up a couple of hours to help. Proud parents. Both sets of indulgent grandparents who had turned out to see the child ride. Then the parents produced the tack and, unfortunately, nothing – absolutely nothing – fitted the pony.
This all happened a few years back when I had a range of saddleries in London and various parts of the country. I was able to equip the pony with saddle, bridle and rugs – and I even took the unwanted items (not bought from us) into our stock to save the parents further aggravation and disappointment. Everyone was over the moon and I really felt like Father Christmas that day!
Maybe I am becoming more Scrooge-like but I don’t think I would turn out so willingly at Christmas now. In any case, I shall be spending this Christmas with my aged father in Yorkshire, something I wouldn’t miss for anything. I have absolutely no doubt, though, that I will get numerous emails and messages left on the answer phones concerning presents that have gone wrong! I advocate giving vouchers – maybe not as much fun as a charmingly wrapped-up present – but infinitely safer.
More words of seasonal caution. Around Christmas time a lot of horses and ponies are short on exercise. The festive period and too few daylight hours and bad weather all take their toll and riding isn’t always a top priority. Some animals maintain their shape amazingly consistently; they might lose a bit of muscle but they don’t gain pounds of fat! Others blow up seemingly overnight. Bit like people, some of whom can lounge about all over Christmas, eat three helpings of everything and nary put on an ounce. Other merely have to look at the pudding or the trifle and they cannot do up zips!
Starting the New Year off, and preparing for the forthcoming competition season, shouldn’t be prefaced with a saddle that doesn’t fit! And it shouldn’t take fighting to do up the girth to bring the problem into sharp focus! Of course it costs money to get the saddle checked and adjusted – but it is far more costly to risk causing a problem that may well impact on the horse’s wellbeing, temperament and performance. The reason we have more and more equine back specialists relates to demand! And some of the demand, for services (that aren’t usually ‘cheap’) relates to situations that could have been avoided.
Whenever I give a talk to an equestrian group about ‘saddles’ and ‘saddle fitting’ one of the questions that crops up time and again is ‘When should I have the fit of my saddle checked?’ Well - how long is a piece of string? Some horses maintain their shape very well while the shape of others reacts to small changes in management. It is important to monitor the changes paying very particular attention when a horse has been off work or on holiday and also during a demanding competition period. (An event horse, for example, may need the saddle adjusted a couple of times during the season.) Certainly every saddle should be checked on an annual basis
KEN LYNDON DYKES is an ex-international level three day event rider. A qualified Society of Master Saddlers’ saddle fitter, his specialities include competition horses and ‘difficult’ fittings. KEN CAN BE OBTAINED AT HEAD OFFICE (01622 844440) or by MOBILE: 07973 501873
