Join us for one of the Livestreams listed below at your convenience and learn about the latest developments in saddle fitting! Mark your calendars!
Plus, keep an additional eye open for additional Q&As and lectures to be shared on the Schleese YouTube Channel and the Schleese Facebook Page.
Michaela Magan – mickiemaganequineherbalist
October 6, 2025 @ 6:00 pm EDT
Michaela is an equine herbalist and bodyworker specializing in Equine Myofascial Therapy. She uses a lot of red light and pressure points. Michaela sees many horses with sore backs and locked-up pelvises and believes it has a lot to do with saddle fit.
Emmalee Thompson – emmaleeawake.eq
October 14, 2025 @ 9:00 am EDT
Emmalee is a returning adult amateur rider, equestrian content creator, and advocate for holistic horse care. After an 8-year break due to a severe jumping accident, she’s now rebuilding her partnership with her Thoroughbred mare, Vela, with a focus on connection-based training and biologically appropriate care. Emmalee shares her journey educating and inspiring other riders to prioritize the physical and emotional well-being of their horses while challenging outdated industry norms.
Alice Ross – bodyworkbyalice
October 16, 2025 @ 2:30 pm EST
Alice is an Equine and Canine bodyworker (soon to add humans to the list!) currently based in Cheshire (North West England). She focuses on fascia and trauma release, the impact that both physical and emotional tension has on the body. After leaving school, Alice spent six years living and working in South Africa as a trail guide and rider before returning to the UK in 2019 to focus on building her bodywork business there.
Heidi Kucera – knabstrupperstallion
October 16, 2025 @ 4:30 pm EDT
Heidi describes herself as an extreme horse hobbyist and has owned and ridden horses her entire life. Horses have always been her greatest passion. Heidi is a former division one athlete (swimmer and water polo player) and has a PhD in Pharmacology and Toxicology from UC Davis. Even though Heidi has owned and ridden horses her whole life, she never understood how to check if a saddle truly fit her horses. A YouTube video that Jochen made on the basics of saddle fit that changed Heidi’s understanding. This video was the first time Heidi was introduced to the saddle support area, and why her horse needs a saddle. This was groundbreaking and provided her with knowledge to help her horses feel better in their saddles. Heidi and her family are forever grateful for this knowledge, and their horses are even more so.
Carmi Reimer – https://www.instagram.com/300.dollar.dancer/
October 17, 2025 @ 3:00 pm EST
Carmi lives near Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada, and has one horse, a sweet, extroverted rescue mare whom she saved from slaughter, and has been training entirely on her own in low-level dressage, using Positive Reinforcement training approaches. Carmi originally grew up riding her brothers’ western project horses, but has always dreamt of riding English. Now she finally gets to live all her wildest English rider dreams, and is super lucky to get to make this journey with the best mare by her side!
Lizelle van Tonder – equine.symmetry
October 20, 2025 @ 9:00 am EDT
With over 27 years of experience in the equestrian world, Lizelle van Tonder has dedicated her life to a single mission: helping horses love their jobs. Her work profoundly shaped her journey to becoming a Master Saddle Fitting Consultant at a special needs riding school, where she prepared ex-racehorses and endurance horses for new careers. It was here that she witnessed firsthand the powerful and often painful impact of poor saddle fit and management on an animal’s body and spirit. Lizelle’s passion for equine welfare led her to study under Dr. Gerry van Oossanen in France, where she obtained her Saddle Fitting Qualification. She continues her education with additional courses in bit fitting, equine behaviour, and saddle making, ensuring a comprehensive, holistic approach to equine well-being. Today, as the founder of Equine Symmetry, Lizelle aims to empower horse owners with the knowledge to make informed, ethical choices. Her mission is to help others understand the deep connection between proper tack, management, and a horse’s long-term health and happiness.
Dr. Robyn Kopala & Dr. Hannah Morrison – meadow_lane_equine
October 20, 2025 @ 10:00 am EST
Meadow Lane Equine Clinic is based outside of Vancouver, Canada. It is a 3-veterinarian general equine practice with a strong focus on sports horse medicine. Its veterinarians are certified by ISELP (in advanced musculoskeletal ultrasound), acupuncture and chiropractic, as well as the FEI as a treating veterinarian.
Steffi Spielhaupter – scienceforsoundness
October 20, 2025 @ 3:30 pm EST
Steffi is an Equine Scientist (MSc) and Equine Therapist (ESMT). She provides support with individual journeys of conscious horse-human connection and personal growth by working with the nuances of equine soundness, always considering the health of the horse’s nervous system in the process. To Steffi, soundness is not just a word to describe a healthy and balanced horse; it is a way of living and interacting. Steffi has three horses who live in a herd environment. She loves how the environment and training help them become more expressive and connected. She knows how easily the balance of physical soundness can be thrown off by ill-fitting equipment. Steffi has struggled to find the right saddle fit for herself and her horses, and the Schleese philosophy has stood out to her.
Lady Saddlers Club – https://www.instagram.com/ladysaddlersclub/
October 20, 2025 @ 6:00 pm EST
Kate Ford – painted__dressage
October 23, 2025 @ 2:00 pm EDT
Kate is a young professional based in Brooksville, Florida, specializing in training ponies, small horses, and rescues in dressage. Most of her clients’ horses are paints and stock crosses, so she has run into her fair share of complications fitting horses that have very wide shoulders in comparison to the size of their bodies.
Dayna – apha.desi
October 27, 2025 @ 3:15 pm EST
About Jochen Schleese and Schleese Saddlery Service Ltd. Jochen Schleese got his certification as Master Saddler in Germany at the age of 22 and came to Canada in 1986 to establish and register the trade of saddlery in Ontario, Canada. With over 100 different models designed over the years, Schleese Saddlery Service Ltd is the world leading manufacturer of saddles designed for women, specializing in the unique anatomical requirements of female riders. Schleese authorized representatives provide diagnostic saddle fit analysis and saddle fitting services across the globe to maintain optimal saddle fit to horse and rider and together they have enriched the lives of over 200,000 horses. He and his company have been the recipients of numerous business and industry awards over the years and have been featured in the Wall Street Journal , twice on the Discovery Channel as well as PBS. He has also won a “Winnie” award for his DVD “Beyond the 9 points of saddle fit” as best educational video in 2017 at the EQUUS Film Festival in NYC as well as one in 2019 for best educational book for his best-seller: Suffering in Silence: The Saddle Fit Link to Physical and Psychological Trauma in Horses.
He is a regular guest lecturer at various equine and veterinary colleges around the world. For more information about Jochen Schleese and Schleese Saddlery Ltd. please go to
http://www.saddlesforwomen.com/
or
Media Contact:
For further information contact Madison Loach.
Schleese Marketing Lead at madison@schleese.com.