Dive into the fascinating world beneath your horse’s saddle with Gillian Higgins and David Kempsell.
This practical course expands on the anatomical concepts explored in the Inside the Horse exhibition, applying them directly to saddle fit, biomechanics and horse comfort.
It offers horse owners and saddle fitters the chance to explore the anatomy of the horse’s back and understand how saddle fit impacts movement, comfort, and performance.
Through hands-on demonstrations with bones, anatomical models, and live horses, you’ll see and feel the muscles, fascia, ligaments, and skeletal structures that lie beneath the saddle. David will then show how WOW Saddles work in practice, highlighting the importance of a systematic approach to fitting.
It’s an immersive day designed to give you greater insight into your horse, combining anatomy, biomechanics, and modern saddle expertise in one inspiring experience.
Course Timetable
10:00am - Registration and View Exhibition
10.30am - Practical Anatomy with Gillian Higgins
Explore the anatomy of the horse’s back in a hands-on session. Using bones, models, and live horses, Gillian will guide you through the muscles, fascia, ligaments, and skeletal structures that sit beneath the saddle. Learn to see and feel the structures that influence movement, performance, and comfort.
12.00 - Lunch, Discussions and View Exhibition
13.30 - Rider Anatomy with David Kempsell
Learn more about rider anatomy, balance, asymmetry and weight distribution with the help of human skeleton models and real-time interactive rider/saddle pressure testing.
14.30 - Practical Saddle Fitting Demonstration with Dave Kempsell
Discover how saddle fit impacts your horse and the role of the WOW Saddle system. David will demonstrate a modern, practical saddle fitting using Gillian’s horses as live examples, showing how to assess fit, adjust positioning, and optimise comfort and performance for your horse.
15.30 - Questions and Discussion
Bring your questions for a relaxed discussion with both Gillian and David, exploring anatomy, biomechanics, and saddle fitting in more depth.
16.00 Close
Gillian Higgins
Equine Anatomy Specialist
Gillian is an equine anatomist, biomechanist, BHS Senior Coach, professional Sports and Remedial Therapist and author with a first class honours degree in Equine Science and Business Management. She is an engaging knowledgeable presenter.
Gillian has performed extensive dissection studies, photographs and footage from which are included in this course. She has also developed a number of anatomical models including one illustrating the anatomy of the head pertinent to bridle fit and design.As well as conventional training, Gillian has studied both traditional and holistic Equine Therapies in America, France, Germany and Sweden. She works with horses from all disciplines and levels from leisure to Olympic, gives lectures, runs courses both nationally and internationally, delivers online courses and webinars and is committed to giving our equine partners the best possible levels of care and consideration. She rides regularly, owns two horses and has evented up to advanced level.
David Kempsell
Saddle Engineer and Founder of WOW Saddles
David Kempsell is the co-founder and Managing Director of First Thought Equine Ltd, a company that has turned the saddle industry upside down with their ground-breaking concepts and innovative products.
David's original training had been in telecommunications, where he used to design trading equipment for the financial industry. His fascination with “how things work” coupled with his ability to think laterally made him look closer at how horse and rider interact. At that time, his partner owned a show jumping horse, which consistently had saddle-related problems. This motivated David to have a closer look at saddlery and its effect on the horse’s movement.
David subsequently started to develop saddles which rely on a combination of airbags and foam to dissipate and absorb the pressures caused by the rider. Coming from the highly regulated telecommunications industry where everything has to be tested and proven to conform to standards of safety and performance, David applied the same philosophy to the development of all First Thought Equine products. Their saddles and saddle accessories like ‘WOW’, ‘Flair’, ‘Korrector’ and ‘Equiform’ have meanwhile become well established and respected brands in the equine world.