About Us

Welcome, and let me introduce myself: my name is Natalie Eggenberger and I am the person behind the business called HorseConnection Kind Solutions Pty Ltd, formerly just Horse Connection.

Update Nov 09: It has been 6.5 years now since I opened shop and I have been fitting and selling treeless saddles full time ever since. It has been a rewarding and highly eductional time thanks to my wonderful customers and their horses, my agents around the country, my faithful suppliers and of course my own horses. Selling differently constructed treeless saddles has taught me a lot and I network with some select overseas treeless saddle dealers who like myself have become specialists in saddle fitting for hard to fit horses. Horse Connection was the first shop for treeless saddles in Australia shortly followed by Torsion and later many other treeless brands were introduced. Since Feb 06 treeless saddles have been EFA competition approved and the development of the Freeform and Barefoot saddles is an ongoing dynamic enterprise that I am proud to be a part of.

Whatever you find is now discontinued in the shop I had reason to discontinue. In my reality the horses always have the first and the last word where it comes to comfort under saddle. I am no fan of rigid panels, memory foam panels and most Velcro on panels under treeless saddles. Additionally I found that saddles that are too adjustable can be a minefield for many horse owners unless they have a very thorough understanding of saddlefitting. With Barefoot and Freeform the level of adjustability is 'just right' in my biased opinion.

It is an ambitious undertaking to try and provide you with saddles that will fit and suit horses and riders of all and any conformation and that also cater for all the activities you love to do together. The chance that it will not work for you and your horse is real but it is slim, I get about 5% of saddles returned due to issues arising for horses or riders that could not be tweaked during the first week of use. You may have noticed that Freeform and Barefoot saddles hardly ever come up for resale unless the rider is upgrading to one of my other models. This is probably the best compliment for these saddles because there are a lot of them out there.

Saddle fitting has become an obsession for me and I have an ever growing collection of all sorts of treeless saddles from around the globe plus approx. 15 types of bitless bridles. So if you ride in a brand that I do not stock I may still be able to help you out in case you run into questions. Differently to common belief you can not just plonk a treeless saddle on any horse and ride happily forever after into the sunset. It is a real concern that so many cheap and/or badly designed treeless saddles are around these day's and that they are sold without any care for the horse's conformation, rider discipline and weight and without a well made treeless saddlepad. After learning a lot about the little details that make some treeless saddles work and others not I can tell you with confidence there is a lot more to the construction of a good treeless saddle than you may think. With an untrained eye you probably will not pick the differences when you look at them, but your horse will surely feel them and some are also a true safety hazzard because they can just fall apart on you. Many people get burnt with these cheapo treeless saddles and end up blaming the 'treeless concept' which is really unfortunate. I have seen horrible faults in Barefoot copies and also in Freeform copies even at tradeshows. I have also helped people to get refunds who were tricked into believing they were buying a genuine Barefoot from Ebay only to find that it was an inferior copy. If it is a new saddle, the Barefoot and Freeform are only sold by myself and my agents, the manufacturers do not supply anyone else in Australia.

The specialised saddlepads in my shop are also available to people who ride in different treeless brands and I am happy to help you to choose the best one for your saddle and horse. If you ride in a cheap treeless please do your horse the favour to invest in one of those. I am happy to look at the picture of your saddle and your horse in order to determine what may work best. No guarantees though some of those cheap saddles and even some rather expensive ones should really never get near the horse you love and please do not get upset if I tell you so straight out after looking at pictures.

 

My little Quarab mare 'Music' chose the Freeform Elite with a Skito pad as her new favourite setup recently- I do not argue with my horses when it comes to a preference of saddles. But I am admittedly very happy with her choice because I appreciate the support and the twist this saddle offers to me. Being a middle-aged rider a few body bits are just not working as well as they used to. This saddle is superbly made and just all around wonderful for my mare and me. I mention this here because the story below is all about the extremely popular and well known Barefoot saddles. I started with the Barefoot and this range has expanded and the saddles have been improved a lot over the years. I still think the Barefoot is an outstanding saddle! In 2005 I added the Startrekk but not for long with the exception of the Espaniola model. Later in 2005 I added the beautiful Freeform which has also gone through a number of great little design changes since. For a few months between winter 2007 and early 08 I also had the Trekker saddles in my shop. Many other treeless brands I never took into the shop after trying them out and looking at their construction.

 

I check my email a lot more frequently than my phone, the quickest way to catch me is therefore via Email. Sometimes I do get snowed under so if you do not hear back from me within 48 hours please resent your email, a late reply is never 'personal' and usually you get an answer from me within a few hours. If you do not understand what I am saying please ask me to clarify things for you - english is my second language and sometimes I stuff it up. I am always happy to reframe things in order to explain myself better.

I will not allow a traditional saddle to be placed on the back of any of my horses and I am not negotiable on the subject after a horrible learning experience: after using treeless saddles exclusively for several years, in 2006 my classical Dressage instructor was very insistant to use his own traditional saddle on my Friesian Warmblood 'just the once'. So I agreed after he assured me this was a perfect fit on my horse and I thought a Grand Prix Level instructor would surely know how to judge this - so I decided not to patronize him to check the fit. I still regret that to this day because 20 minutes into the ride, horse and rider crashed during canter and my instructor was on the ground unconscious. When I took the saddle off my poor shaken horse, he had huge dry patches on both shoulders and my vetchiro was certain! that the horse went down due to nerve impingement from that saddle. It was a tough lesson for all involved and both horse and rider took a long time to fully recover...

 

Original background about Natalie, this write up is now a few years old and tells you how it all started:

My background is in psychotherapy, 17 years of therapeutic bodywork and a life and heart full of horses.

I always loved riding bareback and in fact as a kid I did not have a saddle for ‘Marina’ a rescued grey Welsh Pony mare for several years.
We did everything from flatwork to flat out gallops and jumping straw bales falling off occasionally but always with an angel on my shoulder. Later I learnt that the human body can actually break and became more occupied with not letting that happen, stirrups where a worthwhile discovery.

I rode in English saddles till I was 30 and than spent years in stocksaddles, followed by getting interested in dressage as I had the right horse for it. I tried and owned several dressage saddles for a few years but ran into issues with pressure points and therefore unhappy horses. What I liked about Dressage saddles was that I was sitting a lot straighter than in the stock saddles which threw me of balance with the forward stirrup placement most of them have. I found it almost impossible to engage my horses hindquarters in stock saddles and have not used them for a long time now.

My mother gave me a nicely made bareback pad as a present many years ago and I loved it and still use it once in a while. At the time I was giving sessions in what I called ‘being with horses’ and often used the bareback pad and a vaulting girth in my lessons. Besides connecting person and horse on a soul level, this work was an assertiveness training for some and trauma healing and overcoming dissociation for other clients. Pilates principles, breath and body awareness on the horse and basic riding technique are additional aspects of this work.

I always continued riding bareback, sometimes hacking out just in a halter. In 2002’ I fell off a couple of times and lost a good deal of confidence. I stopped riding out without saddle altogether, really missing ‘truly feeling the horse under me’ but being too worried about big shies without stirrups. After every fall I have had, I have to ride the horse without a saddle the next time to re-establish my trust again, is there anybody else out there who does this?

Some time ago my husband decided to buy me another horse to make me happy. I found a 6-year-old gelding, interesting boy, a Peruvian Paso horse (see above); you know the horses with the funny gait. Well ‘Paco’ has changed my life! I will be eternally grateful to him for bringing new people, new learning and a new career into my life. Right from the start he told me in several ways that his back was hurting during the rides and I tried many, many saddles on him. Paco was badly broken in and could really shy and I have come off him bareback on the paddock. He is as round as they come and with no withers worth mentioning. All saddles rolled, slipped and injured him. I desperately needed ‘something’ that would not hurt him and give me security on his back. I had considered and researched treeless saddles for a number of years and finally, on a brave day, ordered my Barefoot Cheyenne from Germany.

To me this saddle was a dream come true: I felt my horse like riding bareback and I had fenders, pommel and cantle for security, the best of both worlds finally. The saddle also puts the rider in a very upright position and has the stirrup attachments further back than most saddles, perfect to apply seat and leg aids. Meanwhile my horses are happy, relaxed and willing and the problem behaviour stopped when the pain stopped: wrong saddle fit must be very painful indeed and I only weigh 50kg and have a balanced seat, imagine a heavy novice rider in a heavy ill fitting saddle …yes, the poor horse!

My Andalusian Sadhu (now sadly retired) used to stride out very powerfully with the ‘Cheyenne’ and I loved riding him in this saddle, he is such a lovely mover. He is a high withered horse and his movement becomes more elevated and forward, he is also more surefooted and easier to control, stayed very soft and alert, what more could I wish for. I could also feel how his back came up under me when he collects which I could never truly feel in other saddles.

Paco is a different horse with the Cheyenne on his back and the saddle does not slip which was my big concern because he is so round. He still shies occasionally on a windy day and I am like glued to the saddle, feeling very secure. Paco’s trust in me improved dramatically and he is so much happier, the grumpy ‘small eyed look’ is completely gone.
Both horses seem to read my mind in the arena and my aids are getting very subtle thanks to the close contact and - no pain is distracting them from lending me their full attention. On the trail we go out treeless, bitless and barefoot, the natural way.

I was so enthused with the new riding experience that I decided to bring these saddles to Australia for all of you people dreaming of a safe, comfortable and truly horse friendly saddle that does not cost the earth.

Sabine Ullmann the founder, designer and owner of Barefoot saddles gave me the exclusive rights to sell her products in Australia and New Zealand.
So here they are, on your doorstep.
So far I have seen only positive responses from horses and riders with the Barefoot treeless saddles. I also had the opportunity to try several other treeless saddle models and simply like the Barefoot best, they provide excellent value for money, give the closest contact, look great and give superior security in hairy situations.

Being a therapist by trade I had always suspected that a lot of behaviour and training problems relate to pain and the Barefoot saddles make this very obvious.
What many of us do at times to our beloved horses in well meaning ignorance is downright frightening, I mean from the Novice to the Grand Prix level riders with only very few exceptions. I am committed to keep on learning all the time.

If we really explore situations when we judge our horse as: ‘having attitude’, ‘challenging my dominance’, ‘dirty’, ‘naughty’, ‘mean’… we usually find we either have a communication problem, meaning I (as the intelligent human being I am) have to communicate more clearly in a way the horse can understand - or my horse is trying to tell me that it is in pain.
Occasionally especially with young horses we run into real dominance issues but they can be dealt with, without ever touching, let alone hurting the horse.
If somebody calls himself a horse trainer and uses force and inflicts pain, or the horse does not improve, please dare to question that trainer and maybe even yourself: Do you want to be feared or trusted by your horse? Do you want a motivated or a resigned horse? Can you learn when you are scared? Can you concentrate well, when you are in pain? Do you get grumpy when you are in pain?
How many different places in your body can you concentrate on simultaneously? Not many? So how come we expect this of our horse applying several (sometimes even conflicting) aids at the same time? Are you absolutely sure your horse is not responding to pain when it misbehaves? How can you be so sure? Take a second and find your own answers, please.

My Paco needed additional rehabilitation for his back from years of badly fitting saddles and I want to stress this point here. If your horse is really sore through the back and shoulders, you probably need a chiropractor, equine massage or Bowen therapist and exercise rehabilitation in addition to the right saddle. For the exercise rehabilitation you might even need to take more lessons with a good instructor to learn how to build a ‘top line’ in your horse from the ground and in the saddle.
Sorry but the deeper you investigate the more complex things get.

With the right saddle I could start retraining my Paso: Paco has transformed into a most wonderful and willing riding horse and I want to mention my friend and mentor Yvonne Lehey here. Yvonne bases her way with horses on more than 30 years of active involvement in the fine art of mindful and gentle horsemanship. Yvonne currently works with a unique blend of the classical teachings of Phillipe Karl, Clicker training, CAT, Andrew McLean’s method and TTEAM - and she knows how to teach it too. Thank you Yvonne.

I also want to thank all the horses past and present for all the tremendous pleasure and depth they have added to my life, who kept me connected to God, to my wildness, courage, surrender and my spirit.
I am also grateful to and highly influenced by: Klaus Ferdinand Hempfling the ultimate horse whisperer, Pat Parelli who reminds me to keep it fun, John Chatterton who gave me the first real insights into horse training, Linda Tellington Jones who is simply an inspiration, Sally Swift who added meditation to my riding, Susanne Schwaiger and Marianne Gaeng who encouraged me to marry horses and psychotherapy, Tom Roberts and Andrew McLean who show me so clearly how horses learn and how to be an effective trainer –and to all my riding instructors and horsey girlfriends over the years who put up with me and my rather opinionated way’s.
Last not least I want to thank my husband for his Love and generosity and my two grandmothers and parents who supported my passion for horses since I was a toddler.

I strongly support all equine rescue organizations and promote only violence free training and handling of horses and humane or therapeutic horse equipment. Currently I have 2 rescue horses in my care.

Thank you for your time and interest and please feel free to ask me lots of questions. I love people almost as much as horses and actually enjoy being of assistance. I aim to keep HorseConnection a personal little business and I am open for your feedback and ideas.

Keep on riding, it is good for the soul.