WOW

I have had my beautiful WOW Saddle for a year now and I feel like this would be the perfect time to reflect on how myself and Finn have progressed in this time.


Here's a bit about WOW to start...
The WOW team have a wealth of experience and over the years they have worked with many different horses and riders as well as investing much time into scientifically testing different types of saddles to see how they actually perform on horses. Funnily enough they came up with the brand name 'WOW' as thats what people exclaimed when they rode on their saddles!
It took me and Finn a few weeks to get used to the WOW, its incredible as you are so close to the horse and you can feel a lot more movement than in a traditional flocked saddle. I found that over time we had much softer and subtle aids, produced mainly through movement in my body. It felt like the 'conversation' between us was much clearer even though  I was doing less.

I have noticed many of the people I teach have a WOW and they all say how incredible it is. The important benefits are that they can change the saddle according to the horses development or if they get a new horse the saddle can be re worked to fit an entirely different shape. Wow is a modular saddle, so you can get all the components separately. This also means it is a saddle for life!





Since being ridden in the WOW saddle Affinity Bay has had his most successful season to date.
We had many good results at Premier League competitions, including a third place at Addington Manor Premier League in the Inter I and a WIN at Keysoe Premier League in the Prix St George which qualified us directly for the Summer Nationals. And not forgetting our third place at the British Dressage Petplan Inter I at the start of 2017 in the Inter I class (pictured left).

This was Finn's first year at Inter I and I couldn't be more proud of him, his results and development! We are very privileged to be supported by such a wonderful Company and we love their saddles!

Here's a link to my YouTube video of our fitting in the summer with David from Wow Saddles WOW Fitting

Jumping through hoops... The feeling when you make it!

I started applying for the British Equestrian Federation Young Professionals Programme back in October.

The first step in the process was to create a specialised CV and a 3-5 minute video talking about what you can bring to the programme and a brief history of your career so far...

This process was brilliant, I loved the challenge that presented talking to the camera for five minutes... it was very different to an interview! And it was a lot harder than I initially expected.

After a few weeks I received an email informing me I was successfully through hoop number one!!!

Which meant onto number two... the  Interview Day.

We headed off to West Sussex to International dressage rider Sarah Millis' yard with the wonderful Aramis T (Owned by Judy Firmston-Williams).

The yard was exquisite... Everything was immaculate and the horses were all very happy athletes.

I was lucky enough to have a training session with Sarah as well as watching her in an interactive training session in the afternoon with her own horses. In the middle of the day I had my individual interview.

Three days later I had a fantastic email in my inbox...

I am delighted to say that I was successful!!

This poster was hanging in Sarah's tea room...these ideas are definitely present in her life and yard.