Catherine Baker

Vice President

Catherine is our bitting lecturer and current Vice President as well as an assessor and Course Leader for the bridle fitting qualification.

Her love of horses began in early childhood and she has dedicated her life to working with them in one capacity or another.  She spent much of her teenage years riding across Salisbury Plain and studied equine management at agricultural college in Lincolnshire before taking a ‘proper’ job with a national delivery firm.  Whilst working full time during the week she continued to work with horses part time at the weekends but after 9 years the pull of the outdoors was too much and in 2002 she began to retrain as a saddler.

Today she holds the Society titles of Master Saddler, Master Bridle Maker, Registered Qualified Saddle Fitter and Registered Qualified Bridle Fitter and is also a LANTRA Accredited Horse Bit Fit Advanced Consultant.  She is a mother of two teenagers, has built her own house and workshop with her partner and runs her own successful saddlery business from her home in Wiltshire where she specialises in hand-making bespoke bridles.

Catherine is focused on equine welfare and how she can help to raise the standards through educating the riding public, trainee fitters and other equine paraprofessionals of the importance of correct saddlery fit.  She has recently stepped into the role of Bridle Fitting Course leader alongside Frances Roche and is keen to continue developing the course with her so that our qualified bridle fitters have a good range and depth of knowledge and understanding.

She feels privileged to be working alongside such a fantastic team of experienced lecturers and very lucky to have the ability to improve the comfort and welfare of the many horses she meets.