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

Trying to explain why one saddle fits and another doesn’t is often broken down into following a bunch of rules.  But, as in life, following the rules often isn’t enough.  (For the best example of the truth of this, read Matthew 5:21-28 in the Bible.)  The harder thing is to understand the foundational underlying concept behind saddle fit, which is that we are dealing with shapes – matching the shape of the tree to the shape of the horse.  And cutlery is a great analogy to help explain this idea.

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

is in the plastic bag in the center of this picture.  That’s right – dead socks…  I wandered around today and took some pictures of all the places we use them.

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 shipped this one out a little bit ago.  This is a normal Wade fork but rather than being at the normal leaned ahead angle, it is stood up.  We have built some of these over the years, mostly for two particular customers who prefer this look to their Wades, but a few for other people.

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 cervical (neck) vertebrae is the first section of the spine I will write about.  It has the most variation in form within it.  There are two very unique vertebrae that allow the head to have the range of motion it does.  There is also a lot more movement between the individual cervical vertebrae than any other section of the spine, allowing a lot more movement in the neck overall than any other part of the spine.  This is pretty obvious.  And while we don’t ride the neck of the horse, because the spine is one unit – bones, ligaments and muscles all connected as they run down from head to tail – how the neck works does affect the rest of the back.  And it all starts at the head...

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 shipped out another side saddle tree a few weeks back.  We have been building side saddle trees since the summer of 2009 and this is the tenth one we have built to date.  The bottom of a side saddle is the same as a regular saddle in terms of fit, so that hasn’t changed.  But learning how the top of a side saddle is supposed to function and then building something that will work well has been quite the education – and we are still learning.  We also had to completely refigure how attach the parts of the tree together and keep the same correct relationship between the bars because these are built completely different than “normal” Western saddle trees.  One thing we have found is that there is no such thing as a “standard side saddle”.  The designs have evolved and changed a lot over the years and vary depending on where the saddle was made.  In fact, it is pretty tough to find side saddles that are the same until you get to the age of production made saddles.  They really do tend to be individualistic saddles!

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

OK.  So they are all different, but the biggest difference is the horn cap size, and that is what the song is referring to.  (By the way, do they still do that song on Sesame Street?  Is there still a Sesame Street?)  This is the line up Rod faced this morning.  He got the end two rawhided today.  The middle two got two more coats of varnish each and will be rawhided Monday.  Sunday is a day off and a day to worship God, which is far more important than rawhiding trees...

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

next vertebra.  And the next vertebra is connected to the… next vertebra. (Sing it with me!!)  Actually they are connected to all of the other vertebrae, because there are some pretty interesting ligaments holding the spinal column together.  Time out for terminology here:  Tendons attach muscle to bone.  Ligaments connect bone to bone.  Most ligaments are quite short because they are connecting two bones that are sitting side by side.  While there are short ligaments that connect adjacent vertebrae together, there are three main, very long ones that run the whole length of the spine and which are very important in how the spine moves.

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 shipped off the itty-bitty kiddie tree on Tuesday.  Here is a picture of it and its partner finished.  I’m really looking forward to pictures of the finished saddle.  But while it was still here, we had a customer come to pick up a couple of trees we had ready for him.  (The ones with the Taylor and regular cantles I talked about earlier.)  Anyway, turns out he has an 18 month old grand-daughter.  Yeah she’s small now but she’ll grow, and you know, she'll need a saddle to ride with Grandpa…  Seeing that little tree sitting there inspired him and sure enough, we have an order for another one of these with some slight modifications.

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 recently built two trees that were almost identical.  Forks, fit and seat length were all the same.  The cantles had the same specs too for height and width and angle.  But there was a crucial difference - the amount of dish.  One tree had 1 ½” of dish.  One had ¾” dish.  And that difference changed the cantle from a “regular” to a “Taylor”, which affects the look of the cantle, the slope of the dish, the slope of the back of the cantle, the angle of the cantle cut on the bars, and even the bar length.  All for ¾” of an inch of dish…  Here are pictures of what I mean.