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

This is a 5", guadalajara shaped horn cap on an 8" wide Wade tree with 5" of stock.  We have used padauk wood before for exposed horns and horn caps, but the customer has always wanted to finish it themselves.  This time, we got to finish the exposed horn cap, and WOW!!!  Absolutely beautiful wood. (Note: we made a few horns with this and it is beautiful, but after a while decided that it might split more easily than we would be comfortable with, so discontinued its use. But, to be fair, the only one we know that split was whacked on the side of a bucking chute during a ranch rodeo when the horse reared up, so that isn't quite "normal use"...)

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

Here are a few pictures of a wood post Will James tree Rod built this week.  He will be rawhiding it Monday.  This one is 13" wide with a 4 1/2" stock thickness.  The horn on this tree is 3" high with a 3 1/2" cap at 24 degrees.  The specs on the cantle are: 4 1/2" high, 12" wide at 37.5 degrees with a 1 1/4" dish but these, of course, are totally independent of the fork style.

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

Our third Principle when it comes to saddle fit is to spread the Pressure over as much surface area as possible.  Something you will notice on true hand made trees is that the bars are wider than production trees, giving you a lot more surface area.  So we thought we would give you a visual comparison between an older style synthetic tree, an old wood and rawhide production tree, our latest iddie-bitty kiddie tree, our "regular" bars and our Wade bars.

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

Looking at the anatomy of the lumbar spine, you might think that there isn't as much movement there as in the thoracic spine, and you'd be correct.  But there still is more movement than you might think.  And now that we have established that western saddles can and do put weight on the loin of the horse without detrimental effect, knowing how it moves is important in regards to saddle fit. 

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

You know it is spring when Rod can put newly rawhided trees outside to start drying.  This is the norm during the summer - outside just long enough to get the outside of the hide dry to the touch, but not too long or they dry too much, too fast.  In the winter it can be hard to get the outside dry fast enough that it doesn't start to smell.  We use a fan on them if we have to.  But outside in the wind and sun is the best.  And this week, the first trees of the year got their "outside time".  Life is good!!

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

I was once asked "How do you make trees symmetrical if you don't have a duplicating machine?"  It was a new question to me, and it rather surprised me since one of the things that new customers often comment on is the symmetry of our trees - that patterns that work on one side can just be flipped over and they work on the other side too.  So I stammered around a bit trying to answer, talking about marking and keeping center lines, being particular in measuring everything, consistent patterns, lots of double checking to make sure things are the same side to side.  (That's my part.)  But something I didn't think of at the time was just sheer craftsmanship - the ability of eyes and hands to see symmetry and make things symmetrical.  (That's Rod's part.)  So I thought I would take some pictures and show you how we do it for cantles.

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

I thought rather than bore you by showing yet another picture of Rod sitting and rawhiding a tree, I'd do something different.  Here he is standing as he rawhides a tree!  Yup, for some parts he sits and some parts he has to stand.  Keeps him in shape...

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

So far this week, Rod has built three Wades...

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 built a couple pack trees in the past few weeks - one sawbuck and one Decker.  It took some figuring for the first ones to get the Decker hardware and the cross pieces of the sawbucks to fit properly on the top of the bars while still keeping the configuration of the bottom of the bars the same as on our riding saddles.  The way we figure it, the shape of the horse's back doesn't change between carrying a rider and carrying packs, so why should the shape of the bars change?  But it did lead to some interesting challenges in building the trees.