Academic qualifications are not required to become a saddle fitter although sufficient literacy and numeracy are necessary to carry out your work. It is a craft / skill as much as anything and a surprising number of fitters are, for example, dyslexic to some extent. However, you must be able to take readable notes, communicate with your clients clearly and work out your bills correctly.
Experience with horses is a bonus. Perhaps surprisingly, in the early days many people on the saddle fitting course came from a truly trade background and didn’t know much about horses at all. Over the years this has changed, and the majority of trainee saddle fitters now come from an equestrian background.
At present it takes a minimum of three years to train and qualify as a saddle fitter with the Society of Master saddlers (SMS Qualified Saddle Fitter), which is a City and Guilds qualification. This qualification is recognised world-wide and is, in my opinion, the only qualification worth considering. This course is currently being reviewed and updated to enhance the training, but it won’t be any shorter overall. It will however give greater help and guidance along the way than has sometimes been the case in the past. Of course, more intensive training and modules will come at a cost, so you will need money to complete your training and attend the modules as is expected of you to gain your qualification. Details of the course and costs involved will be available soon from the SMS, although of course Covid has delayed the development work to some extent - but see link at the end of this piece.
There are shorter courses out there, but I suggest that these might be missing out on rather a lot, as our three years are very full. One week’s training, or even six weeks isn’t going to give you anything like sufficient knowledge to be a good saddle fitter. People trained this way just don’t know how much they just don’t know and sadly many horses may suffer from this ignorance.
You cannot sit the SMS assessment until you have been fitting for a minimum of three years to ensure that you have good experience in fitting – miles on the clock if you will. This time should be spent under the mentorship of a Master Saddle Fitter (MSF) or Qualified saddle fitter (QSF). This does not mean that you have to work for them, but rather that they will be available to you for some training, advice and to help you with any problems that might occur. This would mean that a saddlery shop without a qualified fitter could employ you (after some basic training) and you could still be registered as a trainee with mentorship with the SMS.
Getting a job as a trainee with a Qualified Saddle Fitter will not be easy as there are many applications for such a post should one come available. Good QSFs or MSFs will be very busy and taking on a trainee will seriously restrict the amount of work that they can do, as each fitting takes much longer if you are explaining everything and pointing out things of importance and interest. I would say that it would be, at the very least, the equivalent of losing one fitting a day for the first three months. Add to that your wages (low as you may think them) and you will see that taking on a trainee is a serious and costly consideration. There are also many legalities that must be dealt with correctly when taking on a trainee, all time consuming. At some time, the trainee will be sent out on their own and this is a big worry for their Master. They value their clients and will always worry for the first few months that everything is going okay. Remember that these people have spent many years building their reputation and business and it only takes a wrong attitude or bad error to destroy that reputation. I am not trying to justify the reluctance of some fitters to take on trainees, rather to explain some of the reasoning behind it.
Anyone considering taking on a trainee will be looking for someone keen and committed. Someone with a driving licence. Confident but not arrogant, prepared to work very hard (saddle fitting is NOT an easy job!) and happy in their own company. You will be on your own for many hours of the day so that is an essential attribute. Remember that if you gain such a position your employer is investing many thousands of pounds in you. Yes, the wages might not be massive, but I doubt many taking on trainees will see a return on their investment until the last couple of months of training. Some trainees find the going tough – clients are VERY demanding - and many trainees quit after a couple of years. For the employer, that represents a loss of thousands of pounds. Others, having gained their qualification promptly leave, so again the employer has lost out. This is why they will want determination, loyalty and commitment from prospective trainees. Training in bench skills may be a good indicator of such commitment.,
Whilst you don’t have to be a ‘bench saddler’, i.e. making and repairing saddlery to become a saddle fitter this certainly adds to your appeal to a prospective employer. You will have to take the flocking course and exam before you can qualify, and this will be much easier if you already have some bench skills. It also means that when you go out fitting and a saddle needs re-flocking you can do that work yourself, (provided you have practised and practised until you can consistently produce an excellent finish) knowing exactly how you want it to be and make any adjustments required at the re-fitting.
There are several options for this type of training. There is Capel Manor in Enfield, just inside Greater London and a saddlery training centre is due to open this year in Walsall, West Midlands. Both offer courses of two years, I believe, and these can lead to a City and Guilds qualification. They will teach you a broad range of skills, many of which will help you as a saddle fitter and to understand just how a saddle is made – essential knowledge for a fitter. There are also several small commercial saddlery schools around the country offering short courses that can work towards City and Guilds qualifications. Some will take you right the way through but many offer ‘starter’ courses to teach you basic skills. Once you have the basics you can go to The Saddlery Training Centre in Salisbury, Wiltshire where they again do week long courses that can, over time, get you to your bench skills qualifications. This excellent centre is an approved test centre and many bench saddlers have honed their skills with Mark Romain here.
Another thing that can improve your chances of landing that precious training job is broadening your equestrian knowledge in many fields, as will any relevant training that you have taken prior to applying. I’m thinking things like Horses Inside Out with Gillian Higgins, so that you understand anatomy and movement more clearly (so essential for fitting successfully), any of the training sessions or webinars run by Dr Russell McKechnie-Guire of Centaur Biomechanics and other courses providing knowledge and training about horses, especially in anatomy, movement, gait abnormalities and the like. Time spent out with a good equestrian vet will also be beneficial if you can arrange it. It all helps and shows determination and commitment.
Just be careful if you are looking at ‘training in saddle fitting’ from some sources. There are some weird, unsubstantiated theories out there and you don’t want to muddy your thinking with such content. Look by all means, but always ask “what testing has been done to substantiate your claims”? Has such testing been done to strict protocols, has it been repeated and is it repeatable?’ You will be amazed how many of these enthusiastic people go very quiet when you ask this question. I know of some that have just refused to answer after repeated requests for this information (we know, then that realistic testing has not been carried out in such cases.) Alternatively, they will say something like “Overall it showed XYZ”, but refuse to tell you what protocols have been used. You can make figures tell you many things if you cherry pick the bits you want. Always question, never take anything as gospel without proper backup. Almost all of the training given by the SMS is backed up by scientific research, so can be trusted.
Some saddle fitters are prepared to take people out for a day’s fitting to observe the work and gain a great deal of knowledge during the day. This will give you an idea if you like the work and want to pursue it as a career or increase your knowledge if you are working towards your qualification, but do expect to pay for this as it is time consuming and very tiring to take trainees with you. Also, some fitters will give a couple of days intensive training in fitting to get you started or to improve your skills. This is something that I do occasionally, but you should expect to pay for this, whoever gives it.
You will know that I produced a series of films on saddle fitting – ‘ Fitting Saddles: The Essential Guide’ available from my Vimeo On Demand pages (details at the end of this piece), which will give a good insight into what is expected of you as a fitter and all that is involved, as well as a great deal of information on fitting. The series is very good starting point for anyone thinking of this as a career and provides a good basic knowledge if you are lucky enough to gain a position as a trainee.
When looking for a trainee position, be prepared to move and live elsewhere. You would be very lucky to find someone willing to take you within easy travelling distance unfortunately. Understand that the pay will not be very much at least for the first few years so you won’t be earning a lot, but neither will your employer whilst training you!
It may seem to you that I have not been very encouraging in this article. This is because you need to want this very badly to get into the profession, but having said that, this is the most rewarding, pleasurable job that I can imagine. I have been a saddler for over 50 years, specialising in fitting for at least 45 of those. I have seen horses branded as ‘bad’ blossom and become happy and contented, as are their owners. I have seen ‘lame’ horses come sound. I have seen ‘stoppers’ and ‘nappers’ learn to love their work and the amazing thing is that the horses often remember you. To be greeted with a whinny and a cuddle from past equine customers is a thrill that I just can’t describe, so if you think that this is a job for you, go for it and I hope that you get as much joy from it as I have done.
© Kay Hastilow July 2020
More
information on training as a saddle fitter can be found on
The Society of
Master Saddlers' website at www.mastersaddlers.co.uk/training
You can find our more about my series of training films -
Fitting Saddles; The Essential Guide at https://vimeo.com/ondemand/fittingsaddles
which once purchased, can be streamed anytime, watched on TV, mobile or tablet or downloaded as DRM-free SD, HD and mobile files.
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