Steph has ridden horses since the age of 9 and has been saddle fitting since 2008, she covers all of Southern England, the Midlands and Wales. Her saddle fitting experience includes several HOYS and Olympia finalists as well as many affiliated competitors and pleasure riders. She brings a truly holistic approach to her saddle fitting, borne of a deep love for horses and their welfare, and has parallel interests in hoof care and feeding in particular. Much of her work is remedial fitting where horses have muscle damage from previously ill-fitting saddles, or for horses recuperating from conditions such as kissing spines.
Prior to saddle fitting Steph worked as a head hunter but by 2007 she was looking to find a career that she found more fulfilling. With a love of horses and an enjoyment for the customer care side of her work she literally woke one morning realizing that saddle fitting would be the perfect career for her. She started as a saddle fitting trainee in 2008 with Saddle Exchange (Andrea's then company with her ex-partner Dean, see our first blog post for more information on this part of Andrea's history). Through dedication to her training and great customer care skills she soon became the Saddle Exchange fitter for East of England, quickly adding all of the south east to her territory, and remained with the company until it split in 2010. Following 2010 Steph has continued to saddle fit for Andrea's new company and has furthered her specialisms and training to include remedial saddle fitting. She loves to see the difference she can make when the pony and owner have been fitted with the right saddle, and even finds some of the trickiest pony saddle fits the most enjoyable!
Andrea was really delighted that Steph decided to stay on with her new company as she continues to bring strong skills to the AH Saddles' team. Indeed, Andrea has trained many fitters that could fit well but that lacked the people skills to back their saddle fitting ability. At AH saddles we believe saddle fitting is not only about having all the right skills to understand the horse or pony you are fitting, but also about having the skills to understand and listen to the owners. In Steph (and all the AH Saddle fitting team) we have fitters that are dedicated to this ethos. Steph not only has a very good eye for fitting but also, like a good fitter should, she is happy to listen to the customer whilst assessing the horse, rider and saddle, so that she can make sure she does the best job possible.