150 SADDLE FITTING DEPOSITION QUESTIONS by Robert Ferrand, Inventor of the Saddletech Saddle Measurement System
As the inventor of the first Saddle Pressure Measurement System, as well as the only calibrated three-dimensional horse and saddle measurement gauge, available anywhere in the world, I am aware that only a few of my clients could answer these questions, without getting into trouble. The chance that any other saddle maker or saddle fitter that does not use my measurement technology could answer these questions, without incriminating themselves, is very unlikely. Additionally, these particular defendants are in a very vunerable position, because they all knew there was a product defect, because I personally alerted them that there was a method to measure for the defect and a solution to correct for the product defect by employing measurement, and a database that matches the three-dimensional shape of the animals back with the corresponding three-dimensional shape of the saddle. These defendants have chosen to ignore this alert. This set of questions is specifically design to force them to admit to their fraudulent claims relating to saddle fit. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29.
Do you know how to ride a horse? What sort of riding do you do? Do you own a horse? What breed of horse do you own? Why did you choose that breed? Did you have any formal riding training? How long have you been in the Saddle Industry? How many saddles have you sold in your lifetime? Did you have any formal saddle industry training? If so, what training? Were you trained as a saddle maker? If so, what training? Where you trained as a saddle fitter? If so, what training? Did you graduate from high school? If so, what school? Did you take geometry in high school? How many points are required to define an “Arc”? Did you take high school physics? Can your explains “Young Modulus”? Have you ever washed your clothes? Have you ever put those clothes on the clothesline to dry? What happen to the clothesline when you put the clothes on the line? What caused the clothesline to curve downward? Is there any relationship between this phenomenon and saddle fit? Isn’t the horseback susceptible to the same laws of physics? If not, why not. .....and what evidence do you have to prove it? Why does gravity not effect of shape of the back? Did you graduate from college? If so, what college? If so, what did you study, major and minor? Have you ever studied anatomy? Have you ever studied tissue physiology? What is capillary closure pressure mean?
30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. 36. 37. 38. 39. 40. 41. 42. 43. 44. 45. 46. 47. 48. 49. 50. 51. 52. 53. 54. 55. 56. 57. 58. 59. 60. 61. 62. 63. 64. 65. 66. 67. 68. 69. 70. 71. 72.
Can you explain the “Scientific Method”? What does the word “Objective” mean? What does the word “Accuracy” mean? What does the word “Measurement” mean? What does a saddle that “FITS” really mean? Is it important for the saddle fit to be accurate? If you fit the saddle without the rider, what happens when the rider mounts? Does gravity have any effect on the shape of the horse’s back? What happens to the horse when the saddle does not fit? Can a saddle seriously injure the horse? Have any of your saddles ever injured a horse? If so, what was the injury? Can an injury not be obvious, but still injure the horse? How many of your saddles have injured horses? If not, how do you know that none of your saddle injured a horse? How do you fit a saddle to a horse? Do you use any sort of measurement? If so, what measurement method? Since you just explained what measurement is, how does this method qualify as measurement? How do you know that this measurement method is accurate? How accurate is it? Have you ever objectively tested your method of measurement? If so, how did you objectively measure your method? Are you aware of any objective horse and saddle measurement methods? What objective saddle measurement methods are you aware of? Have you ever seen a computer interface pressure measurement device? Have you ever used a computer interface pressure measurement device to validate your saddle fitting method? If so, what were the results from the testing? If the results were bad, did you not change your product design? If not why not If not, why don’t you use interface pressure measurement for validation? How many breeds of horses are there in the world? How many different breeds of horses are there in the United States? How many different shapes of horse’s back are there? How do you know what the shapes of those back are? How many horses have you measured? How did you measure these horse’s backs? Did you measure the horses with a flexible rule? Did you make pattern from those shapes? Did you use the pattern individually? Since you just stated that it takes three points to determine an arc, how to you determine fit using the patterns individually? Is this not meaningless information? How can you compare two different shapes using this method? Did you make a three-dimensional pattern of the horses’ back? If not, why do you ask your customers to make wire tracings? How did you make the three-dimensional pattern?
73. 74. 75. 76. 77. 78. 79. 80. 81. 82. 83. 84. 85. 86. 87. 88. 89. 90. 91. 92. 93. 94. 95. 96. 97. 98. 99. 100. 101. 102. 103. 104. 105. 106. 107. 108. 109. 110. 111. 112. 113. 114. 115. 116. 117. 118.
How long did it take you to make the pattern? What did you make the pattern out of? Do you make a pattern for every horse? How do you know that was actually the shape of the horse’s back? What did you use to reference the various parts to each other and to the horse? Did you make a lofted drawing for calibration? How long did it take to make the drawing? Did you make a male or a female template? If you made a male template, how did you verify that was the same as the horse’s back? Why didn’t you make a female template first, so you could check it on the horse? How many of these templates have you made in your life? Now, how do you fit the saddle with this template? Did you use a thermoform or plastic cast? If not, why not? If you acknowledge that gravity has an effect, how does this shape tell you anything? How many sizes of saddles are there? How were these shapes determined? How do you convert templates into saddle specifications? If there are specifications, how are these determined, numerically? If numerically, what do the numbers refer to? Is there any quality control process? If so, what is the quality control process? If not, why is there no quality control process? Is there any universal saddle measurement standard? Can you explain what the ISO 9000 standard is? Do you know what the Branick device is? If you can measure feet and find closer fitting shoes, why would that not work for horses? Why do industries establish standards? Are those numbers, put on the saddle, so the customer can understand the shape? How does the customer relate the specification to the shape of their horse’s back? Does the weight of the rider have any effect on the shape of the horses back? If so, how do you determine how much effect there is? If not, how do you know that there is no effect? How to you use this information to change the shape of the template? How to you use this information to change the shape of the saddle? Have you ever objectively verified that your correction is correct? If gravity does not have any effect on the shape of the back, how do you know that? Are you aware of any three dimensional saddle measurement devices? If so, what are these measurement devices? Have you ever used any of these devices? If so, what were the results? If not, why not? Are you aware of any formula’s to calibrate these devices for the effect of gravity? Are you aware of a method to calibrate a 3-D device with pressure mapping? What is the difference between static testing and dynamic testing? Have you ever objectively tested your saddles statically, if so what were the results?
119. 120. 121. 122. 123. 124. 125. 126. 127. 128. 129. 130. 131. 132. 133. 134. 135. 136. 137. 138. 139. 140. 141. 142. 143. 144. 145. 146. 147. 148. 149. 150. 151. 152.
Have you ever objectively tested your saddles dynamically, if so what were the results? What is physiologically happening under the saddle? What does capillary closure pressure have to do with saddle fitting? If you do not know, how do you know that what you are doing is correct? Do dry spots on the horse’s back have anything to do with saddle fitting? If so, can you explain this physiologically? Can you explain what anhydrosis is? Could the dry spots be anhydrosis, and not caused by pressure? How do you know? How much pressure is too much? How do you know? At what pressure does the blood stop flowing through the tissues? How long can the tissues sustain no flow without damage? If you have no three-dimensional measurements, and no pressure measurements, you do not know physiologically what is happening under the saddle, and you do not consider that gravity is a factor, how can you possibly claim you know how to fit a saddle to a horse? If you do not understand how to fit a saddle, how can your customer possibly know how to fit a saddle? If you have no three-dimensional measurements of the horse, how can you claim that any of your saddles fit? If you have no three-dimensional measurements of the saddle, how can you claim that any of your saddles fit? Are you aware of any companies that have researched and developed measurement and manufacturing technology to solve the saddle-fitting problem? If so, which companies? Are you aware of any companies that have developed measured saddle database to relate the three-dimensional shape of the saddle to the three-dimensional shape of the horse? If so, which companies? If you are aware this measurement technology has been developed, what aren’t you using it? Would it not be more accurate to use the “Scientific Method” to measure for a saddle? If you believe that it is important for the saddle fit to be accurate, why would you not use the “Scientific Method”? Now that you have admitted this, how can you say that any of your saddles fit? Can you define what a “defective product” is? Can you explain what ”unfair competition” is? Have you studied any Federal Regulations? Can you explain what the Uniform Commercial Code is? Can you explain what is an “Implied Warrantee”? Can you explain what “Negligent Misrepresentation” means? When did you first become aware than your saddles could not possibly fit most horses? Why did you not use modern measurement to improve your product? Why did you not inform your customers of this product defect? Did you discuss this with this measurement technology with other vendors? Specifically, what was discussed? Since you have been aware of this for over five years, is it not time for you to admit that you have been misleading your saddle customers just to make the sale? What is the matter with you, boy? Do I have to hit you upside the head?
No further questions, Thank you