The other side of the story… doesn’t everyone love Jerry Springer?
“Rider N” - I want to thank you and your friends for calling me names, giving me “the finger”, and insulting me both personally and professionally, in person, at shows, and on social media. I have never, even in high school, seen bullying or bad behavior at this level. You have certainly proven to me that you are not a person anyone should cross, especially since it has been 5 months since we concluded our business relationship, and still this continues, day after day after day. I have never actually seen, outside of Jerry Springer, adults actually behave like this.
That being said, I want to thank you, readers, for your constructive criticisms. I try to learn from mistakes and I certainly try to listen to other people’s opinions.
I spoke with “Rider N” at length and told her that I could not achieve a custom fit, or possibly even a good fit, because of the saddle’s width and because she uses it on several horses. She stated that she understood this. She stated that the saddle needed to be fitted, and she had already sent it away to be flocked three times since buying it less than 5 months prior.
The saddle, despite having wither gussets, is still too wide for her narrow TB mare. I told her that she needed a narrower saddle to achieve a good fit. The saddle was rocking front-to-back, with the pressure points under the stirrup bars, and had collapsed onto the horse’s spine. I added flocking to the wither gussets to prevent rocking, but after riding in it, “Rider N” stated that the horse didn’t like the flocking there, and had me take it out. So the saddle went back to rocking.
During my initial fitting, I spent about 30 minutes getting the flocking right for her horse, and another 45 minutes with a ridden evaluation and tweaking the fit for the horse/rider. Later that day, she loaned it to another rider to use on their horse for a week.
In my practice, I offer a free recheck within 6 weeks after an initial fitting. I do not, however, offer this if the saddle is used on multiple horses. Despite this, I still drove 2.5 hours out to her farm, and did a free recheck for this saddle. I spent 90 minutes at her farm getting the flocking right, including another ridden evaluation. As I was leaving, she stated that she was going to use it to ride on another horse.
The next day, I went to her Greg Best clinic and watched her 2 hour lesson. Mr. Best stated that the horse was “pissy” due to the rider “throwing herself on her forehand over jumps” and leaning to the right. Immediately after the clinic, “Rider N” herself told me that the horse’s back wasn’t sore, even after being ridden for 2 hours.
Ten days after the clinic, she asked me to come out and fix the saddle again for free. Since I had seen the saddle being used on yet another different horse after the Best clinic, I told her that I would be happy to fit the saddle again, but that I was going to charge her my maintenance fitting fee from now on. I told her that I could not continue to fix the issues in the saddle that were being caused by factors outside of my control.
She then told me that the horse was “unrideable”, and that unless I was going continue to fix the saddle for free, that she would post negative and harmful reviews about me. However, two days later, on Facebook I saw that she competed with the horse at a show, with pictures of her ribbons.
It was at this time that I decided to extricate myself from this ridiculous situation. Since then, I have seen multiple negative posts and reviews on public forums such as Photobucket, Facebook, and the one above, with my name and just enough of the story to make it awful. She also told me that she has gone to shows and has made it a point to tell “everyone I can how you ruined my saddle.”
The pictures on my website are my assessment of what can happen to a saddle when the rider leans and what can happen to a softly flocked saddle if you aren’t careful with it. And because of Photobucket’s terms, any public photos have the ability to be used by anyone, for whatever reason, either as merchandise or on another website, royalty and copyright free. Never once have I used “Rider N’s” name, nor have I ever engaged in slander, libel, or defamation, either online in posts or in speaking to others.
On the issue of having a poor experience, I can certainly agree with “Rider N”. I, too, have had a poor experience. Not once, in any of her posts, has she mentioned any of the above, only made it sound like I emptied her bank account and ran over her saddle with my truck.
I could honestly understand her anger if I HAD taken all her money and then completely wrecked her saddle. Instead, I provided my services for less than what it cost me for wool and gas, made sure she understood that I did not think this saddle was a good choice based on multiple issues, followed up at both at shows and clinics, and have been polite despite immature, disrespectful, and frankly scary behavior.
I hope you all have a prosperous and wonderful year. Thank you for listening to the rest of the story.
In response to Poor Business Practices - Sleipnir Saddlery
This issue started with the flocking, and the fact that I told her that using this saddle for multiple (much wider) horses could change the flocking quickly. It has escalated - unbeknownst to me - to the point where in December, when I had a phone conversation with this rider about how we could resolve the issue after her best friend, who I had never met, was extremely rude to me. I gave this rider every opportunity to discuss this issue, and even referred her to another fitter AT MY COST.
We were unable to resolve the issue because I was unwilling to refund money that she hadn’t spent in the first place. I literally fit her saddle at cost to me twice, because she was a friend of a dear client. The $5 I may have cleared after purchasing the wool and the gas it took to get to and from her house was used to buy supplies for the soldiers I support from HeroBox.
I also told her at the time that because she was using it on multiple horses (and leaned), that the best thing would be to flock it evenly.
The webpage was made in mid-January, after I saw, again, that despite my efforts the rider has continued to post pictures with explanations that are extremely one-sided. I apologize for hurt feelings, the point was to teach people what happens when you ride crooked or use a saddle on multiple horses. I did not post names or mention this rider in any negative fashion. And, thanks to your constructive criticism, I have taken her photos down.
And I agree - to a certain extent - you can flock a saddle to help a rider or slightly asymmetrically to fit a horse. But never to the detriment of the horse.
After the ride at the clinic, I asked Rider N if I could ask GB what he thought of the saddle during her ride, since I couldn’t feel any pinching in the saddle immediately after it was fitted and she went well during our ridden evals. She gave her approval. I spoke to him for a few minutes about the horse’s behavior and how the saddle looked during the ride.
As for other comments, like I was taking saddles off random people’s horses, some things are utterly ridiculous. I do NOT, however, allow sensational, blatantly untrue, rude, and inappropriate comments on my page.
Once I hear back from my lawyer I will know more 