I live in the middle of Australia, Alice Springs, Northern Territory. It is a picturesque area with minimal rainfall and lots of blue sky.

My professional career has been as a Registered Nurse in several fields including midwifery, mental health, critical care, and project management. I am a lifelong learner: always seeking to improve my knowledge and skills in everything I do.

Horses have always been part of my life. Fonz is my warmblood dressage horse and Dutchman is my Australian Stockhorse.

Over the last 30 years, I have successfully competed in various disciplines – dressage, showing, showjumping, endurance and western. I have been an instructor at Pony Club and have held office in various local horse clubs.  A few years ago, I learnt how to maintain my horses’ hooves – barefoot on a one to two-weekly trim schedule.

So how did I get interested in saddle fitting?

Many years ago, my wonderful thoroughbred, Faraday, despite being very successful in dressage, showing and showjumping, always had saddle fit issues. Even with reputable brand dressage and jump saddles, and the input of many experienced saddlers, there were always limited results. No one seemed to know much about the potential issues – tree length, gullet width, tree angles, stirrup bar position, balance points, chair seat position, anatomical differences between males and females etc. The saddle fit was never quite right for my horse or me. I listened to many learned horse people, and read lots but still could not understand why the issues persisted.

At the 2018 Equitana show in Melbourne (Australia), I visited the Schleese Saddlery stand. I asked Jochen lots of questions and sat in the demo saddles. So many answers were forthcoming that made sense, and I felt things were about to change for the better! A few months later I had a lovely ProLight dressage saddle for Fonz. At long last all the fit issues were resolving!

That prompted me to begin the Saddlefit4Life Equine Ergonomist Course. I went on to attend Jochen’s intensive four-day Saddlefit4Life practical course in Melbourne and after completing many months of case studies, I became a Certified Equine Ergonomist. I had learnt so much and gained so many new skills! t

It is my greatest wish for all horses and their riders to be fitted with a fully adjustable saddle and for riders everywhere to know the basics of English and Western saddle fit. This is why I have now joined Schleese as a Distributor.