Wait, she is saying she is a non profit?? BULLSH!T!
I am new to coth but a friend who is and saw this linked me to the thread knowing I had an experience with this person as well. Thankfully no money changed hands before I “ran when the running away was good”. Saying i was appalled (and still am) is an understatement by what I’ve seen posted to the Facebook business page then taken downand now an “article” blasting the op under such guise. That is just bad business practice and unethical. MPS assessment of abrasive is a fairly apt description. I’m sorry for your experience and just glad you and your mare had someone to fix your saddle. There are not a lot of options in the coastal virginia area for saddle fitters.
I would turn her in to the IRS or whichever entity is responsible for non profits.
I (like many other COTHers) googled the location and saddle fitter and figured out who it was as well. I was at the GB clinic watching several friends. While I did not see any encounter between OP and said saddle fitter, I did have an experience (3rd hand) that made me disgusted with her, the first time I met her.
While standing near the gate with my friend and her horse, this saddle fitter walked right up to my friend’s horse, started looking at her saddle, messing with the horse, looking at padding, etc. During this, she never once acknowledged my friend, just began messing with her saddle and horse without her permission. She then took at a notebook, wrote a few notes and walked away, again not saying anything to my friend. My friend then said “who the hell is that and what does she think she is doing?” I approached another friend to ask who this person was and found out she was.
While it was not a personal experience, I was very upset for my friend. I know I don’t want my horse touched without my permission, as the owner/rider, I should be acknowledged and messing with a saddle and pads just before a person goes in to the ring for a clinic is inappropriate.
OP- I am sorry for your experience. It is unacceptable. I’m glad you came to COTH to share your experience. You will be helping several others from encountering her. Poor business ethics is not even the appropriate word. When I tried to find her business facebook page to leave a review I noticed nothing was coming up. Did anyone else have this experience?
I believe there is only a regular website, no FB.
Seriously? And your friend just let this happen? :eek: At the very least, walk the horse away!
Everyone rides a little crooked, just like every horse is a little better one direction. If a fitter can’t acknowledge, let alone compensate, for that, they have no business touching my saddle or my horse.
Glad to hear that I’m not the only one with a horrible experience!
I just looked at her website again. Looks like she has revised the website. There’s a “big thanks” at the beginning now. She took out that the saddle was poorly flocked when she saw it first (good thing since it had been flocked by Mike Scott on August 1st). Edited out the “told me to get a foam flocked saddle” and just has that it was the solution. I cant be sure…but I also think the Greg Best sentence was edited as well. I’ll need to check tat when I get to my computer with the screen caps.
However… my pictures are still there and she’s reiterating that I gave permission. Which I didnt scowl
Hoping the attorney will be able to get the letter out Monday.
Oh and there is a facebook page. Unfortunately if you post anything negative or anything other then omg you are amazing you get banned (and comments deleted).
)The saddle pictures she omitted from her website posting
Wither clearance/gusset fit on right (properly flocked up side).
Refund policy that was removed after I inquired
Fitter A’s response after receiving the saddle. I’ve blocked out her name so as not to involve her
And finally. Fitter B’s response after I sent her the pictures of the saddle. These same pictures that she later posts and points out all the “issues” on. Please note that no mention of a foam saddle is made.
If these links go bye bye, I will repost. Someone keeps reporting them to Photobucket as a violation of User Policies 
I think that posting the direct links eliminates the option of reporting them…but if it doesnt, they are in another album (private) so matter of minutes to move them over and then update the links.
ETA: would also like to add that “Multiple Chiropractic issues” = being seen about every 3 months and adjusted and is usually out slightly in her hips/shoulder, mainly in the Chiro/vet’s mind to being a young TB mare and getting a bit enthusiastic playing with her 2 year old herd mate and doing lots of galloping/rollbacks/sliding stops. She does tend to sometimes get out in her right poll, most likely from my tendency to get grabby with my left hand, which I made a joke to the saddle fitter about.
How, pray tell, were you supposed to be “mashing down the flocking”???
I am not sure? I am certainly not an expert, just know what I’ve picked up through the 3 years of trial and error to figure out what works for my mare?
I had put in the message with the pictures that she was as square as I could get her, both front legs together, hinds together and standing evenly. She was also adjusted between fittings (gearing up for that clinic wanting everything to be perfect) and I specifically asked my chiropractor if she was uneven muscling wise and was told no.
so…? Maybe I girthed it tighter on one side vs. the other (using a fleece girth with double elastic lol).
I am not sure? I am certainly not an expert, just know what I’ve picked up through the 3 years of trial and error to figure out what works for my mare?
I had put in the message with the pictures that she was as square as I could get her, both front legs together, hinds together and standing evenly. She was also adjusted between fittings (gearing up for that clinic wanting everything to be perfect) and I specifically asked my chiropractor if she was uneven muscling wise and was told no.
so…? Maybe I girthed it tighter on one side vs. the other (using a fleece girth with double elastic lol).
I don’t think it’s possible that you, weighing a normal human weight, riding within normal tolerances daily, MASHED DOWN THE FLOCKING in a matter of weeks to the point where the panels were visibly in need of additional flocking. Not if the saddle was properly flocked, anyway. That’s a BS excuse!
Oh no…this wasn’t weeks. This was a 2 hour clinic (where as you know you spend a good amount of time sitting around talking and watching others go). Then literally 2 more rides, both less then 15 minutes long where she was getting increasingly stiff/stilted through the shoulders and not wanting to move forward freely (but was surprisingly not poorly behaved or bucking). One of my boarders who does Western Pleasure!!! Watched her go the second time and asked what was wrong with her, her stride looked short lol!
I took these pictures and sent them to her at the same time I realized she was sore, so 3 rides and about 9 days? after she’d flocked it.
I did attempt a bandaid to lift the front off her shoulders, but it wasn’t enough, plus bute wasn’t enough to knock out the soreness, so I moved to the robaxin and mailed the saddle off.
[QUOTE=anmoro;7365856]
While standing near the gate with my friend and her horse, this saddle fitter walked right up to my friend’s horse, started looking at her saddle, messing with the horse, undoing the saddle, looking at padding, panels, etc, feeling the horse’s back for soreness, etc. During this, she never once acknowledged my friend, just began messing with her saddle and horse without her permission. She then took at a notebook, wrote a few notes and walked away, again not saying anything to my friend. My friend then said “who the hell is that and what does she think she is doing?” I approached another friend to ask who this person was and found out she was. [/QUOTE]
Why the heck did your friend just stand there and do nothing? Anyone with half a brain would have, at the very least, questionned why a stranger wandered up and started fiddling with her tack. Would the friend have stood there if the stranger just walked away with her saddle? It just amazes me that people can be such idiots.
[QUOTE=BAC;7370242]
Why the heck did your friend just stand there and do nothing? Anyone with half a brain would have, at the very least, questionned why a stranger wandered up and started fiddling with her tack. Would the friend have stood there if the stranger just walked away with her saddle? It just amazes me that people can be such idiots.[/QUOTE]
Not my friend and I was not there but sometimes in life when something weird happens by the time you figure out what is happening it is too late to respond. I am guessing this is the case in this situation.
Ummm… It sounds like this was more than a couple seconds in time, how long does it take to observe what is happening and formulate a response along the lines of “excuse me, can I help you?”
I do not think the photos are considered “copyrighted” so I do not think she actually broke the law except maybe “slander”. But it might be hard to prove how she damaged you unless you train or teach. However, she was WAY out of line and I am sure getting really close to doing enough for you to try a civil legal process. Maybe just getting “served” with a summons would wake her up a bit. It is not expensive to file a civil lawsuit, they have forms at your court house, kind of fill in the blank so not too hard. Just serving her might be enough to push her to do the right think. Full refund, remove all photos and an apology.
Flocking, esp. soft flocking, will compress pretty quickly - in some cases, you can see a marked difference after only 30 minutes of riding. However, you shouldn’t be able to “mash down” the flocking to a huge degree in the amount of time you specified. Over a few weeks or a month, sure, but …
And just to reiterate, when you flock to an individual horse’s specs, the flocking will be asymmetrical to the degree that the horse is asymmetrical. I’ve never seen a horse that was perfectly evenly developed, so I flock to accommodate the conformation rather than to get the flocking perfectly even.
[QUOTE=trubandloki;7370275]
Not my friend and I was not there but sometimes in life when something weird happens by the time you figure out what is happening it is too late to respond. I am guessing this is the case in this situation.[/QUOTE]
I could understand that reasoning if something happened very quickly, but this examination the total stranger did had to take some time. They undid the saddle, examined it, examined the horse, and took notes all the while the owner stood there doing nothing.
