About our NSC Brand

The story behind the NSC brand in North America.

NSC North America and NSC USA

Lesley McGill purchased the brand NSC, aka The National Saddle Center, from her mentor in New Zealand. This same mentor originally started the brand in the UK (sold that to another fitter there), then moved to New Zealand and started NSC New Zealand.

Lesley became very comfortable with the brand of saddles, and when she moved back to Canada in 2007, she decided to bring NSC here. Then she partnered with Dr. Jennifer Smith in Oregon, USA, and they established NSC North America and NSC USA.

The only thing in common with the NSC brands in NZ and the UK is the name; we are not at all connected. All NSC branches have developed their own models based on their locations. Believe it or not, riders all over the world have different preferences and breeds of horses. This led to developing a line of saddles suitable for the Canadian and USA markets. This began the saddle-designing stage of her business, which correlated with Jennifer Smith and the saddle makers, and, many hours and many thousands of dollars later, we have a very strong line of NSC saddles. 

Why Choose our NSC Brand

NSC Brand saddles stand apart because there is no middleman. I design, ride in, and sell the saddles. I work directly with my saddle makers in the UK travelling back and forth twice a year to control quality and designs. At NSC we have taken everything we had issues with while selling other brands and made solutions.

For starters one of our first mono flap designs came to fruition because we had so many issues fitting the very baroque backs of Friesians and Andalusian-type horses. We needed more shape through the tree and close contact, we nailed it and then realized we needed this design for all types of horse backs too. So the Rhomeo, with five options in panels and shape, was born.

We have saddles designed for amateur dressage riders, for horses with sensitive backs, for broad fact backed horses, for high wither horses. We are always on the look for what we need to design next.

The next issue was lead times for saddles that were ordered. At NSC, we removed that. Instead we carry a huge inventory of all the saddles. In all tree sizes, knee blacks, gullet sizes, panels, models etc… so the the general rule is you buy the saddle you ride in! All the saddles are new. Tried and tested on the day or the saddle fit. 

And, since we intimately know all the saddle models we know which ones work for which horses and riders.

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