Regional Saddle Fitters

 

Louisa Cuomo

Having learnt to ride herself as a six-year-old  girl, horses have remained central to her life. Her passion for their welfare and comfort drove Louisa to develop her bespoke saddles and new fitting techniques. As well as being a qualified saddle fitter, Louisa is an experienced dressage rider and British Dressage judge. Her knowledge and understanding of both horse and rider biomechanics have enabled her to develop a unique process of saddle fitting and create a collection of saddles that maximise the horse’s comfort, performance and reduce issues over time. Louisa works with all types of horses, from newly backed youngsters to older horse and is keen to support riders training their horses correctly in any discipline, right from grass roots to elite sport. 

Aside from Dressage, Louisa has spent many years rehabilitating and training her own horses and supporting others in their similar journeys. When working with longer-term clients, Louisa uses her biomechanics expertise to assess the whole horse and rider partnership. and provide solutions to maximise performance and reduce issues over time.

Louisa's dedicated passion for helping the horse drives her goal to educate riders of all ages. She regularly organises free gatherings for other equine professionals, runs clinics and demos for horse owners and riders - to enable people to collaborate and learn from each other. Over the past 15 years, Louisa has spent a lot of time travelling internationally to study with many experts in their fields. Louisa works closely with Andy Thomas (Chartered Physiotherapist) who has assessed 11,000 riders ranging from elite Olympic athletes to amateur novices, across all disciplines, and as a Certified Testt Coach uses her expertise daily to help identify where the issue is in the rider that is causing a problem for the saddle and horse. 

Alex McCracken

Qualifying in 1984 from Cordwainers College (now Capel Manor) and working both in the UK and abroad, Alex has worked with international riders and world class facilities alongside top vets, equine bodyworkers, trainers and farriers to enable him to provide a comprehensive saddle fitting solution which echoes Louisa’s fundamental ethos of ensuring a saddle with no compromises to performance, comfort or symmetry.

Having worked extensively in Hong Kong for the Hong Kong Jockey Club as their saddler since 2014, the challenges Alex faced out there gave him an insight into how the relationship with other equestrian professionals could further his own knowledge and develop his own skills as a saddler. Despite having over 30 years of experience at the time, his work out there highlighted to him the need for looking at the whole horse and not just the saddle to enhance the horse’s movement, wellbeing, and performance  

Looking to the future, the CUOMO brand will have an ever-increasing focus on the use of technologies to further combat saddle fit and performance issues such as saddle slip, lack of straightness, asymmetry, and rider positioning. With his commercial drone pilots license, Alex is optimistic they will be able to use footage obtained by drone as yet another perspective to optimise equine performance and saddle fit.  

Alex will be offering his saddle fitting services as well as carrying a stock of CUOMO saddles across Kent, Surrey, Sussex, and Essex. Please contact him on 07740 776305 to arrange an appointment.