They'd put saddles on in fancy stores - bolts, essentially, must go in the middle (7)
I believe the answer is:
ostlers
I'm afraid I can't explain this answer.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for ostlers that I've seen before include "Historically they looked after the horses at an inn" , "They looked after the horses at the inns of old" , "They used to stable horses at inns" , "Stablemen at inns of old" , "Let Ross join in group of old stable managers" .)