Saddle fitter's posts about chair seat/alignment and using no thigh blocks

[Lunabear1988]

Is that all Matters pads or just certain lines though?

Honestly I have the cheaper line. I’m not currently using it but looks nice “enough” to be either way. I can tell the difference though between the higher end ones.

[LovieBird]

It’s the expensive one! The legit sheepskin one.

[kt]

@kaya842

I’ve been following her for a while and she definitely knows how to “play the game” with social media, which means she isn’t the most reliable source of information. And she most definitely pushes Stubben but in a more subtle way than most other reps - look at any of her bad vs good posts, every single “good” example is a Stubben. I haven’t seen her praise a saddle by any other brand despite claiming to have no brand bias.

For what it’s worth, I have seen her also give a nod of praise to Passiers— multiple times. But Stubbens are definitely the star of her social media platform.

I started following her after her two-part Noelle Floyd podcast. Some of what she said on the podcast really got under my skin, but it also got me thinking about saddle fit in ways I’d never considered before. I would say this is a GOOD thing. However, the tone of her social media posts— especially the Instagram stories which expire quickly and leave little evidence behind— seems unnecessarily nasty.

It’s unfortunate, because she does present a lot of interesting education and has a lot of experience, but when you have to sift through so much trashtalking and sarcasm, you find it difficult to trust and respect the person posting the content (at least I do). I know she is advocating for the horse— I really do believe that is her goal. But I think taking screenshots from pro riders’ pages and publicly damning their saddle choices is completely unprofessional and the wrong path. And she is encouraging that culture among her followers, reposting when one of them puts up one of their own nasty posts— all in the name of taking down the “system” of incorrect saddle fitting.

[Scribbler]

@anon68314200

WeLL, I think it has more to do with how recent the information is.
Some professionals are constantly updating their knowledge and looking critically at what they’ve learned in the past. It’s become more and more apparent how holistic the entire mechanism is. So it isn’t just shoe the foot… Everything affects everything. The more you attempt to isolate anyone part of the whole and treat as if that part is separate, the more problems you get.

Crooked movement in the horse affects how the hoof grows and vice versa.

Plenty of professionals haven’t learned a single new thing since they graduated their certification program. I would take the opinion of someone with a different certification and update information.

I agree that horse health is holistic in that it needs to consider all the elements. In humans we know that a pronating foot can cause hip and back issues, for instance

However I’ve seen enough horse pros who are good and educated at one area, but then basically amateurs grabbing the next shiny thing when they go into areas in which they have no knowledge base. I know enough to know when someone is on the right track or selling snake oil.

So if my saddle fitter or body worker comments on hooves I will ask my trimmer . If my coach comments on saddle fit I will ask my fitter. If my body worker comments on muscle development I’ll ask my coach. Etc. That’s if I actually think they might have a point. If it’s obviously silly, I will just smile and say that’s really interesting I should look into it, and then not.