A Day in the Life of Jochen Schleese – Part I

By Jochen Schleese, CMS, CSFT, CSE
©2015 Saddlefit 4 Life^® All Rights Reserved

 

My wife is a saint. She often gets asked how she puts up with all the travelling I do, and the people I travel with often ask me how I manage to stay focused. It’s easy really – I truly absolutely love what I do. It’s as simple as that!

So I thought I would share with you a typical day for me when I’m on the road visiting clients and teaching lectures all over North America. This synopsis doesn’t include the travel days that sandwich the work day – sometimes I have to get up at 4 am to get to the airport for an early flight, which allows me to arrive on location and check the inventory before we start, and on the travel day back home we usually have to make a drop at FedEx to ship the inventory to the next clinic location for one of our other saddle fit technicians.

5:00 a.m.
At this point of the day I am usually still fast asleep (thank goodness!) especially when I have been shifted out of my usual EST time zone.

5:30 a.m.
Okay, now I’m usually getting up because I like to exercise before heading out to visit clients and start my day. I get dressed and go for a run, chanting my ‘gratefulness’ mantra that I learned from working with Anthony Robbins. “I am grateful for the health of my children and my wife, I am grateful for the love of my wife and my children, I am grateful to have a job that fulfills my passion.” This I repeat for the next 20 minutes while I move – being able to keep saying it keeps me at a speed that allows me to still talk.

6:00 a.m.
Quick shower and morning routine to get dressed and meet with my assistant for this trip and whichever associate I am working with for breakfast. I truly believe breakfast IS the most important meal of the day, especially since our days are usually filled with so many clients and appointments and squeeze-ins that there will be little time after to eat, pee, or even rest.

6:30 a.m.
Breakfast (usually at whatever hotel we’re staying at, or occasionally we’ll splurge and go have a ‘real’ breakfast somewhere in a restaurant.

7:00 a.m.
Last minute check to make sure the car is packed with everything we need and we’re on the road driving to the first appointment, which sometimes can be right next door, but more often entails a bit of a drive.

7:30 a.m.
We have reached the first barn; time to set up and pull out the tree machine and measuring tools, the sizing saddles for clients to try, and any wool we’ll need for reflocking as well as our paperwork and pile of evaluation forms. The clients are already at the barn, and the horses are anxiously “chomping at the bit” (pun intended!).

8:00 a.m.
First client has already warmed up her horse and is ready to be seen. I generally don’t like people to ride their horses ‘warm’ because sometimes this warm up can hide saddle fit issues as the back of the horse gets numb to any pain during the warm up. This one though is an old client who has been riding in our saddles for years, and just wants me to check her saddle to make sure everything is working as it should. Needs a wee bit of reflocking but other than that it’s fine.

8:30 a.m.
The next client is a brand new boarder at the barn and comes to me with a horse that shows all sorts of symptomatic issues that immediately indicate to me that the saddle she is using definitely does not fit. I watch as she rides, her horse stumbling, giving a couple of bucking kicks out the back, and seemingly lame on the right hind.  I take the next 1 ½ hours to work with her and explain all of the problems that I see her saddle is causing and we adjust one of our sizing saddles for her to try out. Immediately, her horse seems to have become a whole other horse – everyone watching can see it!

9:30 a.m.
By this point she has tried out a couple of other saddles fitted to her horse, and has now to make a decision. She realizes her saddle absolutely won’t work for her horse – it’s too long for its back, it pinches him at the withers, and the gullet channel is barely an inch wide. She’s crying at the pain and potential damage she has unwittingly subjected her ‘baby’ to and decides to buy one of the saddles she has tried out on him. It’s comfortable for her and fits her well and, with a few little tweaks to make it fit even better, both horse and rider are now happy and able to ride together in harmony. She gives me a hug, which to me is the biggest thank you of all.  I invite her to attend my lecture at the next barn down the road we are stopping at to learn even more, and she gratefully accepts (even though it’s about a hour drive for her – but she’s a new raving fan and eager to hear more).

10:00 a.m.
Several boarders have come to watch ‘what’s going on’ in our corner, especially since I have started to use our brand new “Horse Shape” Laser to determine the horse’s three-dimensional back shape. Two of them ask if we have time to see their horses. I ask my assistant to see if there’s room in the schedule – fortunately for them, this time we do manage to be able to squeeze them in just before we have to leave for the next barn, but it means we forego lunch (again). Oh well.

 

We’re only at 10:30 am and the day has just started, but Part II of this story will be posted next week! So stay tuned for the next 12 hours!!