We create equestrian equipment focused on the real needs of both riders and horses.
How it all started
For us at Winderen, horses have always been our greatest passion and a part of life. Years of experience in the saddle along with our vast expertise in industrial design and technology led us to the first innovative solutions for horses and riders that were not yet available on the market - and this is how Winderen was born.
Whenever we saw an opportunity to improve our own comfort and that of our horses, and the equestrian market was not offering up any satisfying solutions, we would often develop our own. In this way, our professional experience became increasingly intertwined with our hobby.
The final push to combine our passion with our work and create the Winderen brand was the saddle half pad you all know today as the Back Protect Solution. As with other solutions, we initially developed it to improve the comfort of our own horses. The half pad soon started to be borrowed by our fellow riders, who also felt a significant difference and asked us to make additional ones for them and their horses. Motivated by the positive performance of the pad, we decided to get fully involved and began pursuing our passion not only by riding, but also by creating innovative equestrian equipment. As a main goal, we decided to only deal with projects that could really improve the everyday comfort for horses and riders, both in training and stable routine.
No horse was born with a saddle on its back - this obvious conclusion often guides our ideas and gives us a certain design direction. This is why we strive for our equipment to cause the least possible amount of discomfort for the horse, not disrupt its natural movement and physiology, and at the same time help riders to use the aids correctly. Equestrian performance aims at achieving maximum relaxation for both the horse and the rider. Such harmony, without overloads or discomfort, ensures the most effective, healthy and enjoyable training.
While observing the equestrian world from the inside every day, we notice the problems horses, riders and grooms struggle with. This is when we start looking for a good idea on how to create a solution. We admire innovative technologies and therefore we are not afraid to reach for materials used by NASA, the aviation sector or the army, and then adapt them during the design process to the exact equestrian needs. In our work, we often consult experts from various fields, including physicists, chemists, biomechanics specialists and veterinarians. During the development process, we adapt their extremely valuable knowledge to our ideas. All these efforts are aimed at finding optimal solutions, as we strongly believe that only total comfort between the horse and the rider ensures mutual riding pleasure and, as a result, the satisfying development of the pair.
The development process is like working with a young horse - sometimes you have to take a step back in order to move two steps forward.
When creating each product we first prepare prototypes, often very different from each other. We change and improve them a lot until we achieve the most satisfying result. In the beginning, we test all the prototypes ourselves with our horses and then pass them on to our fellow riders of various experience levels. We gather all their thoughts and observations, and after thorough analysis, we draw conclusions and transform them into improvements. We repeat the process of developing, testing and improving until it works the best, so it often takes many years. The road to the final result may be long and challenging, but every effective solution is always worth it.
A good example of this is our Winderen Gel Bits System, which we initially created for one of our horses, for whom it was particularly challenging to find a suitable bit. After 4 years of continuous attempts and 14 versions of the gel, we finally succeeded in creating the perfect one. It turned out not only to be the dream bit for our horse, but also for lots of horses all around the world.
We believe that a global approach is ideal when it comes to finding innovative solutions and materials with the most suitable parameters. However, in order to maintain total control over every stage of the process and a consistently high quality we choose to manufacture our products locally, in Poland. All this is aimed at ensuring that you are equally satisfied with your Winderen experience each and every time.
A huge motivation for us in our work is your positive feedback. We are happy to see how our products solve a lot of, often unusual, problems. Their effectiveness in both predicted and unexpected situations gives us great satisfaction and reassurance that we have chosen the right path.
