Jocelyn Danby

Jocelyn has worked in the equestrian industry her whole career. Having owned her own horses and come up through the Pony Club she started as a groom on various different yards aged 19.  She started learning bench saddlery 25 years ago but it was a side line to start with as she became a qualified instructor and then worked for a while in the equine veterinary industry as a nurse. Riding and competing her own horses Jocelyn enjoyed dressage, side saddle and eventing. These roles stood her in good stead for her future role as a saddle fitter as she learned a huge amount and gained an eye for both the harmony and balance of horse and rider along with recognising the soundness of the horse. It was in 2009 when she turned to saddlery and saddle fitting full time and gained level 3 bench skills in 2010 and QSF in 2013. She upgraded to Master Saddler in 2014 and Master Saddle Fitter as soon as that category was opened in 2019.

Teaching saddlery and saddle fitting for the Society is a new role which Jocelyn took on in 2022 but has been teaching in Poland since 2018.

As a Master Saddler Jocelyn loves the craft side, including making side saddles  but she is  equally interested in both bench work and saddle/bridle fitting.  The two roles as bench saddler and fitter complement each other, and she feels each role makes her better at the other. She is fascinated by all of the saddlery research which is happening now and believe that new knowledge gained can hugely assist to improve the welfare of horses.

Setting up the saddle fitting courses in Poland has been one of Jocelyn’s greatest achievements and developing one of our Independent International Training Partners the Polish Saddlery Association, (Polski Związek Siodlarski). Students come from all over Poland, Slovakia, Czech Republic and even Ukraine. There are two groups now working towards becoming SMS QSFs .