Meet CARMI WEININGER
Carmi Weininger is known worldwide as an educator and innovative thinker who is committed to improving the comfort and performance of horses through saddle fitting. Her saddle fitting clinics and seminars help educate equestrians regardless of riding style, while her saddle company provides saddles for every English riding discipline.
Carmi designed and patented the EQ Saddle Science flapless saddle, building out a comprehensive product line that can be easily fitted for virtually every type of horse and rider. Her immersive study of horse and rider biomechanics, dynamic saddle fit, technical saddle design and enlightened training have taken Carmi throughout the U.S., and around the world.
Carmi’s expertise is recognized by industry leaders. She has been featured as an expert in magazines such as Chronicle of the Horse, invited to teach at universities and vet schools such as University of Guelph and University of California, Davis, and lectured at major venues such as Equine Affaire, Horse Expo, and many others.
A rider since 1972, Carmi has competed in combined training, then jumpers, and founded a teaching/training barn outside Boulder, CO in 1995. She now focuses on dressage.
Commitment to Solutions
Carmi’s saddle fitting clinics and workshops are offered in every setting from barnyard to national expo. Her presentations are packed with information that points riders toward solutions for their saddle fitting challenges.
Carmi came to realize – first from personal experience and later through exhaustive study – that many of modern saddles cause problems for horses. Ill-fitting saddles cause significant pain, restrict performance, and cause trauma, damage, and atrophy. She devoted herself to understanding saddles and saddle design, and to educating riders about the importance of proper saddle fit. Carmi explains: “Our approach to getting a terrific saddle fit, which combines deep knowledge of saddle fit and horse/rider function with the science of pressure testing, yields the best possible outcome for horses.”
“Over the past fifty years, as the use of the horse has changed from essential (military, transportation, and farming) to sport, saddle designs have changed to favor the comfort of the rider”, Carmi explains. “It is only with the advent of saddle fit testing systems combined with modern investigative therapies that reveal pain – sometimes subtle, sometimes dramatic – in our horses that we have begun to assess the impact of the saddle on the horse, and to make improvements in the basic design."
Carmi believes that the saddle, as the interface between horse and rider, is one of the most important elements in creating harmony between horse and rider, and that its proper fit is often accidentally overlooked. She contends that horses will suffer – sometimes greatly – on our behalf. “As a prey animal, horses will suffer a great deal, generally without complaint. Once provided with a pain-free experience, the ability of the horse to perform to his full potential can be astonishing and profound,” she says.