Thursday, 29 October, 2009
We left the hotel around 8:30 am, fighting a surprising amount of traffic to make the morning tea in the nick of time. Class began promptly at 9:15, and was comprised of equine professionals from all walks of life. Some were retailers, some aspiring saddle makers, a fair amount were equine chiropractors and osteopaths, and other equine care practitioners. Among the students, only 3 were non-UK residents: one from Norway, one from Iceland, and myself.
Class today consisted entirely of lectures with a saddle fitting demonstration at the end. The philosophy behind good saddle fit practices revolves around the premise that above all, the horse’s comfort must come first. The problems that can often arise as the result of an ill-fitted saddle are numerous and devastating, and are, according to the Society of Master Saddlers, completely unnecessary and preventable.
It is the general consensus that attempting to generically fit a saddle to multiple horses is a daunting task given the fact that no two horses are built alike. There is danger in attempting to fit a saddle to more than one horse, making it essential that great care is taken to ensure that the proper pads are used when taking on such a fitting.
Interestingly, the British view of American riders is that we tend to scrap good saddle fit practices by compensating with pads. Ideally, only a very thin pad should be used, but only with a properly fit saddle. I did try to come to our collective defense, citing our new shift toward thin yet functional pads such as ThinLine and Back on Track saddle pads. Apparently British horses are missing out! No one in the class, save for the students from Iceland and Norway, had heard of either product, and were most interested in learning about their benefits.
After class, Bret and I drove our classmate from Iceland back to the hotel before heading out to the top-rated pub in Leamington Spa, the New Inn. We sat at the bar, the supposed place to sit if you’re interested in socializing (apparently if you want privacy you sit off at a table). Sure enough, once our American accents were noticed, we found ourselves surrounded by some kindly locals who were most interested in learning all about us.
We had some lively discussions about politics and the state of public education (Public education in the UK differs vastly from that in the US, primarily because Publicly educated children are considered to be of the highest echelons of society – so basically Public education in Britain = private education in the US – see, I’m learning a lot!).
The food at the Inn was, well interesting. Bret had a meat pie (which I wish I had ordered). Having no idea what the various entrees were, when I asked for a “healthy” entree I was directed toward “jacket potatoes” with various toppings. I decided upon a Jacket Potato with Shrimp. Boy was that a mistake. A jacket potato is simply a baked potato, the one I ordered coming with canned shrimp dumped unceremoniously upon it. Trying not to offend the cook (who, incidentally, kept peeking out of the kitchen to see how I was enjoying my meal), I dutifully devoured as much as I could before declaring myself officially stuffed. I must say I enjoyed the hand-pulled ale (Bret and I both had “Stella”).
After dinner we ventured to the local grocery store in Leamington Spa to pick up goodies to bring home from the UK. I stocked up on Polo Mints, having promised to bring them home for the Olson’s girls to give as rewards to their horses, and Bret picked out various kinds of candies to present to one of his British friends who pines for food from his homeland.
