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 Story

I saw it again this last week. Another website/video talking about Cranial Nerve 11 and how important it is regarding saddle fit. The story is that there is a triangle behind the shoulder blade, in the center of which is Cranial Nerve 11, also called the Accessory Nerve. If you put pressure on that nerve, there is a “reflexive action” which causes the horse to “become agitated… twitch, pin their ears,” and which makes the horse stop and hollow through the back and the croup, preventing them from going forward. So, how much of this is true? Not much, actually. Let’s look at real anatomy and physiology and try to sort out truth from fiction…

We are no longer building saddle trees. We have two saddle fit videos available on our westernsaddlefit.com website. Western Saddle Fit - The Basics, aimed at riders, is available either on DVD or streaming on Vimeo while the six hour series Well Beyond the Basics, aimed more for professionals but understandable by anyone, is available by streaming on Vimeo. (We left this website up because we have had many requests to keep the information available.)

We had a question a few days ago from an old customer. He was wondering if we were still building trees as he knew we were shutting things down. The answer - yes, we are shutting things down and yes, we are still building. The key is the time line. The shop will close at the end of July and we will be finishing out our orders by then. But until then, we are still making trees, so I thought I would show you some of what has been going on in the shop, as I have been sadly remiss in that lately…

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 what’s the most important piece of equipment in the shop?  Is it the Big Band Saw, that makes those oh-so-important cuts on the 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.

Thursday, May 19, 11:49 am - Four days after mandatory evacuations due to wild fires were in force less than 100 km (60 miles) away from us.  The rain was definitely appreciated and desperately needed, but just rain would have been preferable…

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 biggest things we hear from people saying you can’t have any saddle pressure on the loin area is that “you’re putting pressure on his kidneys”. Well actually, no, you’re not - or else everyone is as well. Depends how you look at it.

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 last week we have been concentrating on our video project.

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 my last blog post about the “external abdominal vein” and the real anatomy related to cinches, I had a few interesting conversations and have done a bit more research. (After all, our area of expertise is what goes on top a horse, not what goes under it.) In no way am I pretending to be an expert on cinches. But I do know a bit about anatomy and I can understand the big words in the research papers. So, in reading various lay articles, both sent to me and from searching the internet, here’s what I have found.

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 is my rendition of a picture which has circulated on the internet for a while, claiming to show where the “external abdominal vein” lies. The theory is that you have to have a short cinch so your cinch buckle doesn’t sit over it and stop blood flow through this important vein. The picture and idea come from a pdf advertising cinches. I won’t copy the real picture for copywrite reasons, but if you google “external abdominal vein” and equine or horse you will find the picture and the (very erroneous) explanation that goes along with it.

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 first thing the rider does that affects saddle fit is to put the saddle on their horse. Where they position it is so very important.