FEATURE
A legend, a legacy, and Australia’s own Ammo saddle Who can ever forget the sight of the lone rider at the Sydney Olympic Opening Ceremony galloping into the stadium to signal the start of the Games? Not us, for sure. JANE CAMENS talks to Steve Jefferys about the saddle he named for his horse.
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ou could hear a pin drop in that massive stadium. The spotlight on the rider, the galloping horse that reared, before SteveJefferys cracked his whip and 120 horses (including Steve’s partner at the time Sandy Langsford), charged into the arena on their Australian Stock Horses.
to him further about it. He told me: “Working Equitation didn’t exist in Australia when the Ammo was created, but the saddle was designed to be extremely versatile, and so yes, it is ideal for Working Equitation – as it is for most disciplines because of the fact that it holds you in a great position.”
A few weekends ago, Saddleworld came to do a showing of saddles for several horses at the property where I keep my horse. I’d expected stock saddles, but instead, it was a slightly different looking saddle that came out of the truck. I got talking to the saddle-fitter, who told me that Steve Jefferys had designed this saddle, and that it was called the Ammo. I casually asked how the saddle got its name, and yes, that’s right, readers, I quickly realised he was talking about that rider – the legendary figure who had named the saddle after the horse the world fell in love with that night. After the demonstration I was assured the Ammo was ideal for Working Equitation, so I contacted Steve to talk
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So let’s rein back, so to speak. Steve was a renowned horse trainer long before he had the idea for the Ammo saddle. “I was riding 10 horses a day – everything from a two-year-old starting out to a Grand Prix dressage horse that needed some help. I was riding green horses, maybe some that needed re-schooling, and of course some that I was breaking in,” he says. “I wanted a saddle I could put on any horse that would put me in a balanced position for riding whilst giving me adequate support for all these different kinds of horses.” A trip to the USA and time spent in an American cutting saddle changed the way he thought about Australian stock saddles and Western saddles with a horn. “I liked the fenders on Western saddles because they don’t pinch your leg like a conventional stirrup leather, and they keep the sweat off your leg unlike a dressage saddle for example,” he says. “So I took my cutting saddle to the saddle-maker Marsh Carney in Scone and told him I wanted a stock saddle that sat on a horse in the same way as the Western saddle, but I wanted the stock saddle knee pads, which would give me the support that the Western saddle doesn’t have.”
