Just read the website. Appalling and completely unprofessional. Contact her ASAP and tell her she does NOT have your permission to post that and to TAKE IT DOWN.
Wow. Just wow. I looked at the website yesterday and had to sort of digest it before saying anything. So wrong on so many fronts.
Find it hard to believe a leading clinician, or any decent trainer, would have a discussion about faults in any participant/clients’ riding or overall physical ability with a third party without consent. Either GB is not nearly the class act I always thought or saddle fitter B made up a heck of an outright lie.
Does this fitter routinely evaluate and discuss clients riding faults and blame them for creating damage in a new saddle in a handful of rides? Is she suggesting riders with scoliosis or other various conditions from birth or due to injury that “lean” need their saddles refit every few weeks? Or that those who ride well enough to get around courses but carry more weight in one leg then the other ruin saddle fit within a month?
A dispute over fit and services with a negative review of those services should not result in publicly and personally embarrassing a client for revenge and dropping a big name in to back up her attack.
Some wonder why nobody speaks up about bad horse related services? Here is an example of the kind of retribution many will shut up to avoid. Brave of the OP here to speak up.
…a “nonprofit saddle fitting organization”? 
Holy moly, this saddle fitter has some seriously big cajones.
Not to hijack but I had a fitter , who I had used regularly, take my beautiful French saddle and tell me she needed to change the panels to wool… I should have gone with my gut feeling and that was to never let her touch it. I called her, emailed her and I would get a response like,“oh, it will be fine”
Well, when I got it back the panels were flattened and very squishy. My saddle also now made a sound squishy too! You could see her stitching when you flipped it over and when I questioned her about it she said that was the way it was… BS! Not on a $4k saddle!
I wrote to the BBB and got them to pay for the company to put the new panels on and it looks like it did before she touched it. They said doing what she did was cheap way and she over charged me by a long shot. There was basically no filling at all and the leather was starting to buckle because there was no support! No wonder why my horse was unhappy…
I would love to put the complaint up somewhere so people would not use her.
Thank you everyone for your input! I’m so glad I’m not alone in thinking WHAT THE HECK?
And no, I never in a million years told her that she could post anything about me, or take pictures of my saddle and post them. I did sign a waiver, which was a “if I get injured during a fitting I can’t sue” deal. I don’t have a copy and don’t remember if there was anything about me giving her permission to post her notes from my sessions online. I’m pretty sure no though, since that would have been memorable!
I do know there was nothing saying she could take (steal?) my pictures and post them. Thank you for your suggestions….now to start the process to get my pictures removed! I’m hoping to avoid the legal fees…but certainly don’t mind if that is warranted. I have an email into an attorney I’ve used in the past to see what the cost would be to get something sent…I’ve a feeling anything I sent her personally would be blown off or ignored. I do like the BBB and reporting her to Stubben options as well….
To those saying that my saddle does look wide. I agree, she chose the pictures that best represented her point. I have additional pictures (that I would prefer not to post publicly) showing that it is not. I ride her in a basic shaped pad, plus one of those equigel type pads that’s eons old (15 +/- years) that has a cutback wither. She is happy as a clam with this set up, with a 2 fingers of clearance w/t/c under the wither and since the gel pad is short, its not adding fill around her shoulders, which is the biggest issue with a lot of the half pads out there.
My mare absolutely cannot stand pressure on her shoulders. That was one of the hardest things we had when saddle shopping due to her large shoulder, and one of the reasons I went with the Black Country. My previous saddle was a Tad Coffin smart ride (so foam flocked!). I’ve used a plethora of other brands on her to find the fit she likes. She’s extremely opinionated (aka a TB Mare….LOL)…if something bothers her, she lets you know. She needs this wide fit…anything narrower and she shows exactly what she thinks of you!
As far as the leaning. I know I lean. I have a deformed disk in my back that makes one hip higher then the other. I see the chiropractor myself regularly. Its certainly not to the extreme that was stated….however, this is added incentive to whip out the “Greg Best stirrup exercise!” Yay for homework lol!
[QUOTE=mazu;7364807]
…a “nonprofit saddle fitting organization”? [/QUOTE]
I thought that was odd as well! She posts on her site that the proceeds go to “horse charities” but when I asked her what rescue my fee went too, It apparently went to sending care packages to veterans…but she wouldn’t name the exact organization. Not that I’m complaining…Navy brat with multiple generations of Navy on both sides…but a specific “name” would have been nice…
ETA: also my check was written to her personally, not a non profit organization, and it was “signed” not given a business stamp.
In addition to having an attorney send her a letter about using your situation and photos…
I do think you should state her name on this thread. That way, if someone is googling her, this thread will come up and people who don’t read COTH will know to avoid her.
Well, I don’t think we are such shrinking violets that we can’t handle someone talking about our riding issues with others. Greg will talk about areas of concern as well as things someone does well, but it’s nothing more than he says while teaching that anyone watching can hear anyway.
That said, with the way this saddle fitter spins things, I wouldn’t trust her story at all.
[QUOTE=RugBug;7364979]
Well, I don’t think we are such shrinking violets that we can’t handle someone talking about our riding issues with others. Greg will talk about areas of concern as well as things someone does well, but it’s nothing more than he says while teaching that anyone watching can hear anyway.
That said, with the way this saddle fitter spins things, I wouldn’t trust her story at all.[/QUOTE]
I asked Greg specifically if I needed to step down or stop jumping. He told me my issues were exhibited mainly over jumps, so it was something I needed to work on over jumps, and that I was fine at the height I was jumping.
She also greatly exaggerated the things I need to work on, in addition to the “needs to step down”.
So you need to work on things. How is that her business? She can adjust your saddle or not adjust your saddle. If she feels your riding will cause problems to the flocking, she’s free to tell you so-- but she’s not your trainer?!
Many lawyers will not charge you for a basic cease and desist letter – or it should be a very minimal charge.
Most definitely file a complaint with the BBB.
I think her post was appallingly unprofessional.
ETA - she used your photos on the “factors that affect saddle fit” page too. Given that the saddle probably would fit if properly re-flocked, it begs the reader to wonder whether she knows what she’s doing.
It reminds me of the time when I paid saddle fitter “B” $250 to tweak the flocking on an old Spirig saddle. He told me the saddle didn’t fit the mare at all and he wouldn’t touch it. Instead, tried to sell me a new, expensive saddle, and when I balked, he adjusted my Stubben to the point where it rocked on her back and caused her to buck after every jump. I had only used him because my regular fitter (A) was ill.
Two months later, I paid Fitter A another $150 to fix the Stubben so it didn’t hurt the mare. He also pointed out that the Spirig needed only a tiny adjustment :mad:.
The sad part is that saddle fitter “B” has a pretty good reputation. I see him recommended on this board and others. However, I think my horse got the last word on whether the saddle was working for her and I always wondered how many other people ended up with poorly fitting saddles after trying to make sure their horses were comfortable.
I now enough now to recognize when a saddle fits or doesn’t fit, but at the time I was willing to trust the “expert.”
Was Fitter B at that GB clinic just watching and listening to what was publically told to the riders or is she implying a private meeting with the clinician at another place and time discussing OP? Makes a rather large difference.
Im no shrinking violet an have paid for public criticism from many clinicians. But would not care for them to discuss me privately with a random third party who plasters their negative remarks all over the internet.
The only “non-profit saddle fitting organization” I know of is the American Institute of Saddle Fitting (http://www.saddlefit.org/about_AISF.htm). However, I don’t know anything about it otherwise.
While the aim of any rider should be to ride as evenly as possible and to get their horse to develop evenly, any fitter worth the title will take into account any asymmetries in the horse and/or rider, and adjust accordingly. Adjusting flocking so it’s “perfectly” even is only done if you’re bringing the saddle back to factory spec, or if the horse and rider are “perfectly” even (which I’ve never seen, honestly).
As far as talking with a clinician about a rider’s issues and how they might have bearing on saddle fit, I wouldn’t … unless the rider requested it, and was involved in the conversation.
Still shaking my head over this.
Google is paying attention to bad reviews, and is starting to bury sites that have bad reviews deep in the search results. Were I you, I would not hesitate to leave a candid and honest review of your experience on Google and any other germane review sites. However, I would not do this until I had either resolved the matter with Fitter B, or I had given up.
I too was easily able to find her web site and agree that her post about how riders affect saddle fit is beyond belief. Talk about passing the buck. Good luck to you.
I’m not sure I found the correct site but I’m sorry you have had to experience that. It is unfortunate and unprofessional, as others have commented, that something like that would be used.
She says it’s a non profit organization but it is not registered on GuideStar . . . and there are no records of a 990 filing.
My guess is it’s nothing of the sort.
[QUOTE=findeight;7365119]
Was Fitter B at that GB clinic just watching and listening to what was publically told to the riders or is she implying a private meeting with the clinician at another place and time discussing OP? Makes a rather large difference.
.[/QUOTE]
I highly doubt she had a private meeting with Greg.
F8 - I’m so sorry, I should have explained better. I don’t think she met him privately at a separate time (although the comment on the website does sound like she had a private discussion later).
She was there at the clinic. In fact, I hopped off after my session and told her straight out that there was something wrong with the saddle fit because this was NOT my mare. We checked her back, and she wasn’t sore…shortly after that she (Fitter B) went in between sessions to ask him if she could get her picture taken with him. I didn’t figure out it was a shoulder issue until two rides later.
I “guess” its entirely possible that she did ask him, but since when I asked he told me something completely different…and Greg really isn’t the beat around the bush type of guy, I’ve seen him be downright blunt lol…I guess the readers can draw your own conclusions.
Her business facebook has posts all over the place, especially when she first founded the business touting the NPO status. If you’ve found the website…just google the name and her group page will pop right up.
the main reason I didn’t post her name is because I didn’t want this thread to get locked or otherwise go bye bye…especially since that happened to my photobucket album with all the saddle pictures and the screenshots of our conversations “reported to violate PB’s user agreement”.
Thankfully I was concerned about that so made sure the “public” album contained copies 
(I had posted a link in my review).
OP, I’m pretty sure I know who you are and I def know who the fitter is. She botched a job on my boarder’s saddle. Boarder has a hard to fit horse and even though the boarder bought a saddle recommended by the fitter, she reflocked it, and when the horse showed signs of discomfort again a few weeks later, she blamed it on the owner not buying a $3k custom saddle, shrugged her off, and told owner to pad up the saddle with towels until she could afford to pay her to re-adjust the saddle. :eek: She also said owner didn’t ride often enough to muscle up horse’s topline and if she did that the saddle would fit better. Sorry about your saddle OP, that really sucks! At least word is getting out not to use her, she is pretty abrasive and obviously unqualified.
