We are no longer building saddle trees, but we have two videos about how Western saddles fit horses available on our westernsaddlefit.com website.

We've been doing a fair number of exposed wood cap horns, but haven't done a whole exposed horn for a few years.  This one is Jarrah wood, and the photography doesn't do the beauty of the wood justice.  Not by a long shot...

We are no longer building saddle trees, but we have two videos about how Western saddles fit horses available on our westernsaddlefit.com website.

There are a whole lot less measurements we take that affect the fit for the rider compared to the measurements that have to do with fitting the horse.  And here they are!

We are no longer building saddle trees, but we have two videos about how Western saddles fit horses available on our westernsaddlefit.com website.

Just another normal work day around here, so I took the camera to the shop to see what I could see.  So, here's Rod rawhiding another Wade tree.  This one's headed to California.  You've seen a fair few pictures that look pretty much like this before, but that is just because this is what rawhiding a saddle tree looks like...

We are no longer building saddle trees, but we have two videos about how Western saddles fit horses available on our westernsaddlefit.com website.

The next thing down our list, after the fork measurements, are bar specs and information on fitting the horse.  We keep track of measurements for ourselves that never go out to the saddle makers.  Why not?  It probably isn't useful for them to know, and it isn't something anyone can use in comparing between different saddle makers anyway.  But for us, for our trees, where we know exactly what we do to build them, these measurements are very useful for our own learning purposes.

We are no longer building saddle trees, but we have two videos about how Western saddles fit horses available on our westernsaddlefit.com website.

Although we rarely get more than two orders from a single maker at one time, it is really interesting how they still comes in waves.  Similar orders often group themselves together.  For example, a week or two ago we some visitors and were showing them around the shop.  We didn't have a single example of a tree with a metal horn - not in the wood, not in any stage of drying, not waiting to be shipped.  Not a single one...

We are no longer building saddle trees, but we have two videos about how Western saddles fit horses available on our westernsaddlefit.com website.

One of the things I wrote about a while back as being a good reason for ordering a hand made tree is detailed record keeping.  I figured it was time to go through what all we keep track of on every tree and why we think it is worth while recording it.  Over the years we have added more and more items to our list of "things important enough to record" so we don't have all these measurements on the earlier trees.  By now we have 51 columns on our computer database into which I enter information on every tree we build.

We are no longer building saddle trees, but we have two videos about how Western saddles fit horses available on our westernsaddlefit.com website.

After a lot of thought, decision making, money and time, you finally have your brand new saddle!  Congratulations!!  However, it is important to recognize that it takes a few hours of riding to really work in a new saddle.  In talking to saddle makers, they say 10 hours of actual riding is really a minimum to get the saddle fitting like it will for the rest of its working life, and one maker felt that things would still change for up to 100 hours.  So just in case it doesn't feel like everything is perfect that first ride out, don't be too worried.  Here's some hints to help you during that "breaking in" period.

We are no longer building saddle trees, but we have two videos about how Western saddles fit horses available on our westernsaddlefit.com website.

The Wade style of saddle has become very popular over the past 20 plus years and, as with anything popular, many misconceptions get spread around about it.  Some people say that a Wade saddle fits a horse differently than other saddles.  You will hear that the seat in a Wade saddle is different than other saddles.  If you read the internet, you are told you are closer to your horse in a Wade saddle than any other kind.  And on, and on...  What is the truth?  The following information has always been available on our page on Wade forks, but since the topic has come up in discussions with customers about four times in the past two weeks, I thought I would reiterate it here with more pictures to try to make it clear - from our viewpoint anyway.

We are no longer building saddle trees, but we have two videos about how Western saddles fit horses available on our westernsaddlefit.com website.

One of the Factors that Affect Fit that we haven't discussed yet on our blog is the amount of twist in the bar.  Because horse's backs are not even from front to back, but steeper at the withers and flatter over the loin, the bar must change "angle" along its length to match the shape of the horse.  This is called "twist".  No, the wood isn't twisted to make this shape - the shape is carved from a flat piece of wood.  But as you look down the bar, you can see the "twist" in the angle from front to back.