Would highly recommend Jen and Happy Horse Tack for remote saddle fittings!…read more I live in southwest Colorado and have purchased saddles from Jen in the past, always with great satisfaction. When I found myself needing professional help because my saddle had started rubbing my horse's back at the rear panels this year, I went straight to Happy Horse Tack. Jen coordinated an early morning FaceTime call to accommodate the 90-degree days we'd been having in my area. She thoroughly evaluated my saddle's fit, walked me through making a few adjustments, and scheduled a follow-up FaceTime appointment to reassess everything. She also promptly shipped me another saddle that we both agreed was worth trying. After it arrived, she met with me again to check the fit. The result was fantastic. The trial saddle has the U-shaped tree my horse's build needs, allowing him to move much more freely through his back and shoulders. Jen is now on the hunt for a dressage saddle with that same shape for us. Even better, the adjustments we made to my current saddle completely stopped the rubbing. I've had both in-person saddle fittings and three remote fittings with Happy Horse Tack over the years, and Jen has always done an excellent job. The saddles have always been in great condition, carefully packaged, and fairly priced. Jen and her team are knowledgeable, communicative, honest, and truly want what's best for your horse. Don't let the fact that the fitting is remote scare you away. The process is incredibly thorough, and you'll feel like Jen is right there with you every step of the way.

I know a bit about saddle fitting and have always used independent fitters in the past just to make…read moresure my thoughts on a saddle are sound. My go-to person retired and a friend said she had good luck with Happy Horse so I gave them a try. Worse experience ever. Jen was the rudest person I have had to deal with. For her "back testing" she did something to make my poor horse react violently across his back (which, 2 vets, another saddle fitter, and 2 body workers could not duplicate between 24 hours and 2 weeks from our meet) to make it seem like my horse was in dire need of a new saddle right that second. I'm sure she's okay if you have absolutely no saddle fit understanding at all and have to take her word as the gospel, but I was looking for a used saddle and everything she brought out was new, at the higher end of my budget (except for 1 old, should have been under a grand saddle they still wanted 3xxx+ for) and all of those saddles may have fit my horse okay but they didn't fit me at all. And she seemed to take questions as permission to try and belittle or gaslight you. Trying to salvage something from the appointment I had waited over a month for I even tried to give examples of saddle brands I find easy to ride in (the design of the saddle, the flaps and how narrow the twist is, all play into fit for the rider) and every time I tried "So I really like riding in X brand - do you have anything that rides like that?" I got a flat and condescending "I don't do those brands, ask one of their representatives" ...okay so you don't even know what your brands ride like?! Isn't that part of your job as a saddle fitter to know a bit about a lot of brands? Especially popular ones? Ended up paying $500+ for no saddle, worst customer service ever, a "back tracing" that was done incorrectly (seriously, useless information and more on that in a minute) and feeling very unsure about things since Jen was so rude and said a few absolutely nasty things about my horse that made me doubt myself to the point I spent more money on having vets and body workers out to double check my horse (all 4 licensed professionals said my horse was fine, no one could make him react through his back even a day after this disastrous encounter) So I did my own research, called up several out of state tack stores, talked to their employees, explained my situation, had the nicest experiences with all of them - every time I said "So I really like riding in this brand" they'd reply with "Oh, okay, we have some of those, but those also ride like these brands." Six shops did this. SIX. Not a single one told me to contact the brand representative. All of them also completely understood what I meant when I described why I didn't like the brands I tried that Happy Horse brought up. Jen acted like nothing I said made sense. Tried using the "back trace" I got from Happy Horse and got "erm, yeah, that's done wrong" (which I already knew but I was going to try it) sent back pictures of my horse, picked a saddle from recommendations of a brand that was new to me, researched the tree size I would likely need, ordered that saddle for a trial, called a true independent fitter, arranged for the fitter to come while the new saddle was on trial, low and behold, the saddle works perfectly other than needing a reflock which this new independent fitter also did. This fitter came out 2 weeks after Happy Horse, complimented my horse's condition, said his back felt amazing and supple, did a back trace that made sense and revealed the only slight imbalance that I had suspected, and cost 1/2 the price of Happy Horse even though he is based even further away. In summary, I wouldn't recommend these guys at all, but definitely wouldn't recommend unless you know nothing about saddles and are super green so you take everything Jen says as 100% fact. Also don't ask questions.