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Horseytalk.net Special Interview
Andrew Reilly
01825 830484 / 07775 648384

On the comedy circuit –  No. No. Stop laughing - they say Jimmy Carr, the smooth-faced, thick, slicked-down hair comedian who is everywhere, is the next best thing to Andrew Reilly..

In the horsey world - No. No. Missus. Not yet .Later -  it’s the other way round. They say Andrew Reilly is the next best thing to Jimmy Carr.
Or should it be the other way round ?
Either way, if you can’t get to see Jimmy Carr, the next best thing is to call Andrew Reilly. What’s more you won’t have to trudge half-way across the world to some unknown theatre in the middle of nowhere, he’ll come to you. Any time . Any place. Any how . Although he usually turns up in a scruffy, grey-white-muddy Renault 5 van.

Andrew Reilly
 

But wherever he goes, he leaves people reeling with laughter. No. Not because of that Missus. Although he has been known to do that as well. But because, he’s just, well, funny.

But he is also – No. Don’t laugh – not only one of the most popular and successful saddlers in the South East but also one of the most serious.

In fact, to prove how serious he can be he’s just designed and produced his own brand-new saddle – The only one of its type in the world. Patents pending – which not only flexes laterally but also diagonally. “Because,” he says, “that’s how a horse moves.”

Already the word is spreading. Enquiries have been coming in from all parts of the country. Orders are following.

“Why nobody has thought of designing a saddle like this before, I don’t know,” says the serious Andrew Reilly. “It’s unique. It  fills the gap between treeless saddles and those with trees.”

The reason why nobody has thought of it before is probably because they’re not Andrew Reilly with his broad range of skills and experience and, it must be said, his genuinely deep love of horses.

Andrew was born in Islington, North London. Neither of his parents were in any way horsey. His father was Irish from Co. Mayo. He was a lorry mechanic. His mother was a nursing sister at Southampton Hospital.

The elder of twins by just 15 minutes, Andrew didn’t discover horses until he was 25-years-old. His first horse was Pepper, a three-quarter Arab cross. At first she was kept at a livery yard in Southampton. Then when Andrew moved to East Sussex to a livery yard at Ashdown Forest.

“Pepper died at 24,” says Andrew. “after that we got a pure Arab, Eluisha.”

 
Andrew Reilly demonstrates his new  Omniflex  saddle showing how it flexes this way .... and then that way.
Andrew Reilly demonstrates his new Omniflex saddle
showing how it flexes this way .... and then that way.

Having been a junior manager at Sainsbury’s , a nurse at Southampton General, a pension clerk at Standard Life, he almost overnight decided he wanted to be a saddler.

“I was living at Lyndhurst. I must have been about 26. A saddler came to fit a saddle to one of our horses. I can remember thinking to myself, What a great job. You’re working with your hands. You can enjoy what you’re doing. You can have this great connection not only with horses but also with horsey people.”

Within a year, he had enrolled at Cordwainers College in the City of London, which was well-known primarily as a specialist shoe-making college but, in addition, they had a saddlery department, which was one of the best in the country.

 

His tutor was Michael Huline-Dickens, one of the great side-saddle specialists in the UK. Andrew left Cordwainers College with a City and Guilds certificate in Rural Saddlery. His first job was at Sian Saddlery at Buxted. Within 18-months, however, he had set up on his own.
“I wanted to spread my wings,” he says. “I didn’t want to be part of a group or a team. I wanted to offer an individual service in my own individual way.”

The first week he was working on his own, he took £3.50p.
Today, with nearly 3,000 customers on his database, his takings are much, much higher.

“Of course, we continue to make saddles but we do more fitting and re-fitting of saddles than anything else. Horses grow. Horses change shape. Riders grow. Riders change shape. There is always a constant need to adjust and re-fit saddles,” he says. But it is as a specialist saddler that Andrew is becoming more and more widely known.

Take, for example, his latest design, the Omniflex.
“At first, I wanted to develop a new concept of dressage saddle. But then the more I thought about it, the more I began to see it as a jumping saddle as well. Not only that but one that continually adjusted to the shape and movement of the horse.

“Because nothing like it exists at present, I designed the tree myself. That’s the heart of the saddle. That’s why it’s being patented.
“Everything else followed. I’ve made the seat higher. I’ve put the stirrup bar further back. I’ve added special dressage flaps.
“It’s an important saddle for riders. But it’s more important, I think, for the horses. Their backs will not be constricted as they are with the more conventional saddles. They’ll be more able to move more freely. They’ll literally be able to be themselves. That must be a good thing.”

Joking apart – If that’s possible – Andrew clearly loves his job and the opportunity it gives him to help both horse and rider.

 

“It’s the best job in the world,” he says seriously. “I love it. I like horsey people. They’re genuine. They love their horses. A client once said to me, You dispense magic. I liked that.”

Being a saddler also, of course, enables Andrew to also dispense his jokes to a captive audience.

“I started telling jokes about 20-years ago,” he says, jokingly or seriously it’s difficult to tell. “I like dry, sarcastic wit. I like Jimmy Carr because it’s what I would call clever humour. There are different layers to his jokes. Everyone of them is funny. I like that.”

So what’s his favourite joke?

He doesn’t say. He just laughs.

Andrew on stage or, rather, in his workshop. Same thing.
Andrew on stage or, rather, in his workshop. Same thing.
 
Jokes

Who told the following jokes?
Jimmy Carr or Andrew Reilly?

If someone close to you dies what do you do?
Move seats.

My girlfriend said she wanted me to tease her.
I said, You’re fat.

Boxers don’t have sex before a fight. Why?
Because they don’t fancy each other.

No matter how much money you give a beggar for a cup of tea,
they never give you one.

I’m not saying Michael Jackson was guilty.
All I’m saying is if I was a billionaire paedophile, I’ build a funfair in my back garden.

Who told these jokes?
Jimmy Carr or Andrew Reilly?

It’s impossible to tell the difference.