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Vogue SoftTree Saddles The Vogue SoftTree is our flagship range, and is a revolutionary design unlike any other saddle on the market. The manufacturing process is unique in saddle-making, developed by myself and Nurseys of Bungay in Suffolk, England. Vogue saddles are still made for us in England by Nurseys, using the finest Italian leather. FlexEE Saddles Rishabh Sharma contacted me through the British Equestrian Trade Association (BETA), 12 years ago, then aged 19, and looking for a job in the UK in equestrian wholesale and marketing, in which he had trained, as well as in saddlery manufacturing. I hadn't...

Catherine Morris (MSFC dip) gives in-depth instruction on taking wither and back templates with a flexi curve, so that you have a precise picture of the horse's back conformation. This guide shows you how to do this accurately, which will help in the choice of the right saddle for you and your horse.  Our step-by-step pictorial guide also shows how to take a wither template - http://www.hmsaddles.com/pages/taking-a-template  

One of my EE teachers was asked by a fellow livery at the yard where she keeps her horses ‘Why ride in this Classical seat? It's not proper riding, you can’t ride like that out hacking or generally’. Oh the misunderstanding, the ignorance that still abounds in the horse world! My staff, pupils and I, never ride in any other way. Yes, we will put the stirrups up a hole for hacking and probably two if going for a canter, but the position doesn’t alter from the ear/shoulder/hip/heel line. Little do these people realise that it’s actually a very secure...

There is an enormous amount of confusion in the horse world about what constitutes ‘long and low’, ‘forward down and out’  ‘deep and round’ and the dreaded ‘rollkur’. For me, the average exponent of ‘long and low’ has the horse almost ‘peanut rolling’ head near the floor, trundling along on its shoulders. ‘Forward, down, out’ is probably the method espoused by proponents of Philippe Karl’s ‘School of Legerete’,  where he is looking for ‘neck extension’ with the poll always the highest point, and the horse extending the frame with nose well in front of the vertical. ‘Deep and round’ is...

I was surprised, no, rather shocked, last week to read a post on my Enlightened Equitation Facebook group where the writer said that she was into natural horsemanship, to ‘better connect with her horse’ and that she would find my training ‘intimidating’. I queried why out of genuine curiosity, but haven’t seen a reply. Intimidating? But why?!! I have long promoted the strapline on my website of ‘A Kinder Way to Ride and Train’. Does this conjure up the image of the stereotypical riding instructress of old, who barked commands military-style, to her frequently terrified pupils?! I see courses of...