Saddle Fitting With Clarke McKenzie

Clarke McKenzie Ltd encourages everyone to have an experienced Saddle Fitter oversee the fit of any saddle. Those in the South Island can make appointments with our two in-house saddle fitters, Nathan Clarke and Seija Parkkali. Nathan is a second generation Qualified Saddler and Saddle Fitter with over 20 years experience and Seija has been trained by Nathan to his exacting standards.

Appointments throughout Christchurch and it’s greater area are available year round and cost $110 GST incl. Seija also makes regular trips around the South Island and provides saddle fitting services to most areas. Please join our mailing list, check our website, or contact Seija directly for updates of when they will be in your area.

Appointments take between half and hour to one and half hours depending on your requirements. A refit of one existing saddle usually takes half an hour, whereas someone looking for a new saddle or several new saddles takes longer. You will be asked to fill in a form to collect detailed information about the horse, the rider and your saddle requirements.

A physical examination of your horse will be performed focusing on conformation, wellness and soundness before any saddle if put on it’s back. Should your horse have a back injury you will be asked to reschedule your appointment once it has recovered. Interim remedial work on an existing saddle may be possible if this is the case, but your horse must be sound in it’s back to complete a saddle fitting for new saddles. Once saddles have been tried you will be asked to have a short test ride in those that fit well to the horse while standing and lead out. Detailed notes of your saddle fit are kept on file for future reference.

Please note: helmets must be worn during test rides, this is non-negotiable.

Upcoming Saddle Fitting Trips:

North Island – Paraparaumu:

Monday 20th February 2012 @ Karen Trotter’s property.
Contact Karen for bookings on 0272415827

North Island – Palmerston North

Tuesday 21st February 2012 @ Penny Castle’s property.
Contact Penny for booking on 0274727810

Nelson Area

17 – 19 February 2012.  For bookings please contact Seija on 03 3236536

The Saddletech Gauge

The Saddle Tech Gauge is a patented tool that provides an exact three dimensional measurement of the arc and angle of your horse’s back.

This is tremendously useful at measuring the change that occurs between saddle fits and removes all guess work.

Minute changes can be measured over the saddle baring area of your horse’s back and your saddle modified as needed to reflect these changes.

The Range

Clarke McKenzie carry in stock saddles made in New Zealand, Australia, England, Italy, Argentina, Germany, America and more. We also sell good quality used saddles.
Finance is available on saddles and all other products, with flexible terms and from no deposit. Conditions and credit criteria do apply, contact the store for details.
If you have a good quality saddle that you no longer need we may be able to trade in, or buy it directly off you. Contact the store if this interests you.

Saddle Fitting Hosts

To arrange for Nathan and Seija to visit your area, speak to other riders (friends, pony clubs, adult riding groups, neighbours etc) and get an idea of numbers of people that would like to attend. A host venue will be necessary where there is room for vehicles and floats, preferably good covered yards in case of bad weather plus somewhere suitable to ride out when test riding saddles. Benefits to providing the host venue include free of charge saddle fitting for the host. Drop Seija a line directly to go from there.

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