Schürer Saddlery

Reflocking

Reflocking is the best investment for the money that you can make in your saddle. It can dramatically improve the feel and fit for your horse, and encourage your horse to lift and use its back. We have found that many horses continue to improve for months after a complete saddle reflocking as they become accustomed to the comfort and gain new strength in their backs.

Unfortunately, most saddles on the market today, even some very expensive ones, are flocked with polyester batten or real wool that has been reprocessed. That may not sound like a bad thing—but it is far from being a best case scenario. Polyester batten becomes extremely hard over time and usually flattens muscle tissue; and reprocessed wool loses all of its elasticity. Imagine chopping a metal spring into small pieces—would it still be a spring? No, it would be a lot of small bits of metal. The same happens to reprocessed wool.

The success of your reflocking will depend on a number of factors including:

• The quality of tracings and photos that you send us. This is important information!
• The skill of the fitter/saddler. We have been fitting and flocking saddles for ten years in the US and in Germany and have a great deal of experience. We know when and how to raise or lower the pommel, cantle, or the center of your saddle.
• The quality of the wool. We spent a long, long time researching wool sources and import our wool from Canada. It is long-fibered virgin wool, airy and fluffy but with a lot of body. Horses love it and it holds its generous elasticity for years and years.

Trees & Adjustable Tree Repair

Trees

Please note: Whenever you send a saddle to us, we will check the symmetry of the tree before we work on the saddle. We do not want you to spend money repairing a saddle with a twisted tree. If your tree is twisted, we will contact you and let you know.

If your saddle tree is too narrow or too wide, we can adjust it. Most saddle trees can be adjusted one size up or down; many can be adjusted further. Naturally, adjusting the tree will save a great deal of money. To do the best job, we will need tracings and photos.

Adjustable Tree Repair

The very first adjustable tree mechanisms (Wellup) were made in Holland and were introduced to the market about twenty years ago. Laser International introduced an excellent mechanism shortly thereafter. Both companies have made many improvements in design and, as you know, many more companies are opting for adjustable trees.

If you have an older adjustment mechanism in your saddle that is showing its age, do not despair. We work with a brilliant Mennonite machinist who has repaired many of these and does an excellent job. His father owns a harness shop and he has been helping us with saddles for seven years. We break the saddle down, he fixes the mechanism, and we build the saddle back together. Team work! The fee for this service is only $400, much cheaper than having the mechanism replaced or purchasing a new saddle.

Panels and Gussets

It may be that your old saddle needs a bit of redesigning to get the best performance for your horse. For example, we may want to widen the space between the panels or widen the panels themselves.

If you have an older dressage saddle without gussets. These frequently do not provide enough support under the back of the saddle, create pressure points in the center of the saddle, and allow the saddle to rock back and forth on your horse’s back with each stride. This is very bad. In fact, the sorest horse backs we have seen have been on horses whose saddles are rocking.

Gussets are the answer. We learned to add gussets during an internship in Germany. They are fun to do, they come out great, and they give years of improved service to old, out-of-date saddle designs.

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Stirrup Bars

Many dressage riders today feel that their stirrup bars are too far forward. Here’s what we can do:

1. We can extend the stirrup bar, making it longer at the front to that your stirrup leather hangs further back. We usually extend them a full inch. Our brilliant Mennonite machinist does this for us and he stands behind the strength of the bars. They are as strong as before they are welded.
2. We can replace your fixed stirrup bar with an adjustable one. We have three-hole and five-hole adjustable bars available.

Many riders are relieved to discover that they can easily achieve a correct position with ears, shoulders, hip and heel in alignment when their stirrup bars are in the right place. Should you to change your stirrup bars, we can help you to decide which option is the best for you and your saddle.

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Thigh Blocks and Knee Pads

Knee pads are easy. Naturally we can recover these for you and we use Sedgewicks’ and Pittard’s l eather—the best English saddle leather in the world. Knee pads are not nearly as emotional a topic as…

Thigh blocks! So many choices and strong opinions! Some dressage trainers and riders do not want them at all; some want them and the bigger the better! If you look in Dressage Today you will see that the top riders in the world have opted for huge thigh blocks. Can they all be wrong?

Please know that thigh blocks are very changeable. We can:

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1. Remove thigh blocks completely for the purists.
2. Make long blocks shorter for the long-legged rider, which allows the knee to pass freely underneath the block while still leaving a nice set of “brakes” against the thighs. This makes it easier to follow your horse’s movement with your seat.
3. Add new blocks in any size and shape. We can send you sample blocks or a chunk of foam to trace and design yourself. We can work with you to identify the best shape for you and your saddle.

Billeting Systems

Without question, billeting systems are the newest area of innovation in saddling. Billeting systems are critical because they determine the balance of the saddle and of you (!) on your horse’s back, and they have been improved fantastically in the last years. If you have seen thirty-year old dressage saddles, you will recall that the billets were often right next to each other in the center of the saddle. This encouraged rocking and, without gussets, the saddle rocked like a ship on the ocean.

Today, the state of the art billeting system has a sliding-V in the back which allows for two points of contact to distribute pressure, and a changeable first billet that can become a point strap if needed or can sit one inch behind the tree points. The most innovative systems allow you to change this strap yourself.

The point strap was introduced to the market around the year 2000, and was intended to prevent saddles from sliding forward on extremely wide horses. It quickly became the norm, which meant that all the horses that did NOT NEED the point strap HAD ONE that was pulling the front of the saddle down behind their shoulders and causing discomfort or pain. The new systems that allow choice are, therefore, much preferred.

If your saddle needs rebalancing, we can:

1. Add a point strap.
2. Remove a point strap and add a strap behind the tree points.
3. Add a sliding-D
4. Possibly, depending on your thigh blocks, add a system that you can change yourself.

Seats

Please bear in mind that tweaking seats can get very expensive. Having said that, we can:

1. Patch and glue a ripped seat for very little money.
2. Replace a seat for lots of money. We use Sedgewick’s and Pittard’s, the best English saddle leather for our seats.
3. Put more stuffing into the seat under the leather. This is required only rarely but we did have a client with a saddle that had NOTHING underneath the leather and it was very uncomfortable for her.