KEN'S COLUMN
Questions that deserved thoughtful answers!
It’s an interesting fact that, when I give a saddle-fitting demonstration, it is the Pony Club members who always come up with the best questions.
The other night a slim, athletic looking little girl of about ten asked me if I thought it was ‘vanity’ when ‘ladies tell the saddle fitter fibs about how much they weigh?’ Very astute, I thought!
Certainly a lot of ladies provide information that I will describe as ‘enhanced’! That doesn’t matter too much when a nine stone lady describes herself as ‘eight-and-a-half stone’! It matters a lot when a twelve stone lady refers to her build as ‘slight’ – and I have known it happen – promise! On that particular occasion I arrived at the client’s yard with a selection of fifteen or so saddles – not one of which was suitable.
A young male member of the Pony Club – I don’t come across enormous numbers of boys – asked me if I thought it was ‘more important if I spend my time after school exercising and schooling my pony or cleaning my saddle?’ Dangerous ground! Mum looking on and obviously fed up with having to admonish a young man who probably never cleaned his tack unless absolutely forced! I chickened out and suggested it would be a good idea to’ divide the time’ because ‘keeping your pony fit and your tack clean are both very important’. In confidence - I have to say, if push came to shove – and assuming the saddle wasn’t absolutely covered in mud – I think exercise is the priority!
At another Pony Club evening an older member asked me if she should be concerned when the judge was really too heavy to ride her small hack? Should she tell the judge so - ‘and refuse to allow him to ride?’. I suspect she had one particular well known – and well endowed – hack judge in mind! I chickened out again and said something like ‘we have to remember that a heavy person who is a good rider does less harm than a lighter person who is a bad rider’! And I went on to say ‘in any case, the judge only rides for a very, very short time indeed’.
This advice was pretty fair and sound – but I did have in my mind’s eye headlines in a leading equestrian trade titles stating ‘Well-known saddle fitter condemns heavy show judges’ – or similar. Win some – lose some.
One very earnest child of about eight came up with a startling – and actually quite interesting – question. ‘Supposing I had to choose between not having a saddle or a bridle, which should I give up?’ he asked. I told him about the demonstrations given quite a while ago at the Horse of the Year Show involving horses that were ridden without both saddle and bridle. They performed intricate dressage movements and jumped some pretty big fences.
This was all true – but I then caught the eye of the lady standing next to him – clearly his mother. She was obviously visualising some shocking accident and was willing me to add a warning! ‘Of course, I said, one should never try anything like that at home. It took years of schooling before the horses were ready to perform.’
This was one I got totally right! When we were all enjoying cups of tea after the demonstration the lady whom I’d taken to be the boy’s mother told me that she had been very ‘relieved’ when I gave ‘such a sensible answer’. ‘I could just see him in the field attempting to ride his quite tricky pony without the use of a saddle or a bridle. The picture was terrifying’, she said, ‘and culminated with a wailing ambulance’!
Another amusing question came from a boy of about fourteen or so. ‘My father isn’t here tonight so it’s OK to ask’, he said. ‘My horse and I have been selected for our event team but my father insists on riding him – and he’s a shocking rider. How can I stop him riding? What do I say?’ The easy way out would have been to say that the questions should all relate to saddles and saddle fitting – but I chose the next best way out of a tricky situation. ‘I think it would be a good idea if you asked your team trainer to have a word with your father’, I suggested. ‘She won’t do that’, the young man said, ‘she’s my father’s girl friend.’!
One of the most difficult questions of all related to a question from a mother. It went something like ‘I don’t know very much about ponies at all. My daughter needs a new saddle and we have been given the names of three saddle fitters. They are……… Who would you recommend?’ It happened that two of the people mentioned were Society of Master Saddlers’ qualified saddle fitters whom I knew quite well and whose work I respected. I didn’t know the third individual. Not an SMS member, his reputation had reached my ears many times – together with luridly shocking stories about his fitting techniques!
Stories like ‘We don’t need to get the horse out of the box at all. We can try the saddles in the stable’. ‘You’ll never need to change this saddle – or have it re-flocked. It will do your horse for his entire life.’ (The danger of this last piece of advice can be judged in line with fact that the fitter was referring to a four-year-old that still had an enormous amount of growing to do!)
I took the easy route. ‘The SMS saddle fitters are both very good’, I said, ‘but the other fitter I don’t actually know – although I have heard stories’. I think the implication wasn’t lost on the questioner!
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 contacted at head office (01622 844440) or on his mobile (07973 501873).
