To be sung to the tune of Hockey Night in Canada…
We are no longer building saddle trees, but we have two videos about how Western saddles fit horses available on our westernsaddlefit.com website.
Wade Wade Wade Wade Wade Waaaaade
Wade Wade Wade Wade Wade Waa-aaaaade
Wade Wade Wade Wade Wade
Wade… Wade Wade Wade
Wade… Wade Wade Wade
Wade… Wade… Wade…
etc.
OK, so sometimes being in the shop too long can lead to "interesting" behavior - and songs. But in looking through the orders coming up, I found something that was unusual. They are all Wades! Now, we do have some “holes” for customers who have ordered but haven't completed their specs yet so we may build something different in the middle of these. But for now, we have quite the string of Wades coming up.
A while back I wrote a blog post on what makes a Wade a Wade. These orders help demonstrate the foundational fact in that post – that a Wade is strictly a type of fork and the rest of the tree is variable.
So, we have orders to fit Western ranch horses in working shape.
and orders to fit wider and rounder horses than are not typical on a working ranch. So no, a Wade does NOT fit a horse in a specific way. The Factors that Affect Fit are all as variable with a Wade fork as with any other fork type.
We have tall cantles,
extra tall cantles,
and medium height cantles. It is rare that we get a Wade tree ordered with a cantle height less than 4”.
We have long seats
and shorter seats. So no, a Wade does NOT fit a rider in a specific way either. How a saddle feels to the rider is due to the groundseat the saddle maker puts into it, not the style of fork it has.
We have smaller horns. (3 ¼” cap is the smallest we put on a wood post horn.)
and larger horns.
and even an exposed wood cap horn.
While it is true that the original Wade tree had one “width” and shape, there are now orders for wide Wades.
and narrow Wades.
We even have duplicate of a Wade to build.
So, in anticipation of the onslaught of Wades...
today, Rod built an Olin Young cutter style tree.
