TOP RIDER SEEKS ROYAL TAILOR’S HELP

Sarah’s story appeared in St Albans & Harpenden Review in April 2008

With the help of a Royal tailor, an equine lecturer at Oaklands College, St Albans, is mounting a strong bid to become the 2008 UK Side Saddle Rider of the Year.
 
Sarah Moreland called on the expertise of St Albans’ bespoke tailor Geoffrey Golding to ensure she had the perfect ‘turn-out’ for a competition where the elegant look of horse and rider commands crucial points from the judges.
 
And at the end of April, Sarah, 38, of Waveney Road, Harpenden, took third place in a qualifying round for the national equitation championships close behind the 2007 champion Samantha Boxall and junior title holder Lily Edgington.
 
Sarah has twice contested the national championships on her dark bay mare Parys Finisterre but this, she said, was “a special day – our best result since I started working with Parys four years ago and a lot of the credit must go to Mr Golding and his team in Hatfield Road. The judges' feedback on my turnout has filled me with confidence.”
 
Sarah’s cup was overflowing when her stylish appearance helped her win the Herts County Show title for the second time at the end of May – and qualification for the Sir Lancelot Final at the national championships at Milton Keynes in August, a competition to find the country’s most elegant rider.
 
Sarah needed Goldings’ skills to make her a side saddle habit – skirt, jacket and waistcoat – after discovering that manufacturers who had served the equestrian community in the home counties had ceased production.
 
She said: "It was a bit of an SOS. Side saddle competition requires skills in jumping and dressage - which we call equitation - but immaculate turn-out is just as vital if you are to succeed.
 
"The judges assess the rider’s appearance in the minutest detail: there is one crease in the skirt which must be in absolutely the right place and there are places where creases must never appear! The skirt must be exactly the right length in relation to your left boot and stirrup, and so on - there are dozens of exacting rules to observe."
  
Mr Golding, who holds a Queen's warrant for services to the Royal Household, said: "It was a challenge. We make riding coats and breeches and shooting jackets, but making a side saddle apron – a peculiar shaped skirt - is not just complicated, we had to deliver absolute perfection.
 
"It involved a great many fittings, using an actual side saddle. You can think it's finished but then you see the need for one more tiny adjustment. It has to be just so!"
 
Sarah’s strong challenge in April’s event gave her an early season qualification for the 2008 national championships at Milton Keynes in August.

Winning the UK title would be a dream come true. She said: "I am the third generation side saddle rider in my family. My grandmother and my mother both forged lifelong careers with horses and I hope my daughter Tara, who is 11, will take it up in due course.
 
"It’s great to be going to the national finals again, with a horse that is going so well. My mother who died in a riding accident when I was 13 would have approved of what I am trying to achieve I am sure," she said.
 
Side saddle riding dates back to Queen Elizabeth 1 and beyond. Making one of the habits first tested Mr Golding’s skills when he was a junior tailor in Savile Row.