Once Upon a Time
We are no longer building saddle trees, but we have two videos about how Western saddles fit horses available on our westernsaddlefit.com website.
back in the ‘80’s, there was a cowboy…
He got his first custom saddle from a very good saddle maker. But while he was happy about his saddle, he wasn’t thrilled with the way it looked, because it was built on a production tree that didn’t look, to his eye, like a real Wade. And it had a few issues...
So when the saddle maker learned to hand make his own trees, the cowboy sold that saddle and got a second custom saddle from him. This time he was very pleased with it, not just in how it looked but how it fit a horse as well – everything about it was juuuust right… (Well, except that it took a bit longer to get the stirrups he had ordered, and since he was so excited about his saddle, he took pictures with cheap stirrups on it instead…)
Fast forward a few years, and that cowboy not only learned to build saddle trees, but he built his own saddle with the help of another really good saddle maker. It was a good saddle, especially for a first attempt, but he wanted to do more.
Ten years later, he sold that saddle and built himself another one. There is a real satisfaction in building your own saddle on your own tree, and knowing you did a good job of it.
So… when it came time to downsize and sell a saddle, which one would he choose? Would he sell his old saddle built by a really good maker who wasn’t building any more? Or would he sell the saddle he had made?
It was a tough decision, and it was hard to let it go, but he decided to sell the old one. He had enjoyed working out of that saddle when he was younger, and he was happy it was going to be used regularly by a cowboy again. And although a lot of years had passed by, and there is a bit of wear showing on both the saddle and the cowboy, overall there hasn't been a whole lot of change in either of them...
