Sally and Russell

I am so excited to be a brand ambassador for Cavaletti Collection! Not only do I love their products, but I also appreciate what they stand for and can really relate to their target audience.

I’m 33 and have had a love for horses since I can remember. Owning a horse has only ever been a dream until I chased it upon moving away from family and friends to start up a new life in Chelmsford, Essex on my own about 5 years ago.

I never came from a horsey family and didn’t have a clue what I was doing (this hasn’t changed!), but I made some very good friends the world of Eventing and I soon got the bug. I’ve always been sensible with money and after building a strong career and investing in the important things in life, last winter I saved up and bought my very own horse, Russell!

The minute I clapped eyes on him that was it! He was 6, brought on by semi-professional showjumpers, but still very green and could be quite sharp. We’ve spent the last year forming a strong bond and teaching each other many tricks – he’s learnt so much and I’ve fallen off a lot!

We started from the beginning, going to hunter and eventer trials and joined our local riding club attending clinics, camps and any other fun activities that provided us with an opportunity to learn more and get use closer to achieving our Eventing goals.

I started off with our first unaffiliated event falling off in both the SJ and XC phases and am glad to say it was only upwards from there! We started competing at BE80 in the summer and ended our first season with a win, finishing on our dressage score!

We are now very focused on improving our dressage and showjumping through the winter, ready for the next season in March and have won some rosettes at British Dressage Prelim and British Showjumping clear rounds recently.

This is where Cavaletti Collection and I crossed paths at a perfect time – I had been having some problems with Russell in his dressage saddle where I think he’d changed shape from having built up muscle from all that flatwork practice and it just wasn’t fitting as it should. I now ride him in the Cavaletti dressage saddle, accompanied by the soft Scirrocco stirrup leathers and ASX Atherstone girth – the wool flocking means it doesn’t move one bit and the big knee blocks and deep seat makes me feel so secure!

The soft hide of the leather feels lovely and I love the little touches such as the opportunity to customise the badges.

The real bonus with these saddles is the fact that you can adjust them – the gullet system is all interchangeable – if Russell was to lose or gain any width in his shape, it gives me confidence to know I can adjust the gullet bar and we have a saddle for life!

On our very first outing in our new kit, we came 1st in the Prelim 17A class at BD, with our best score yet!