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

Rod saw this in a Lee Valley catalogue a few weeks ago and thought it would be useful in the shop, so when I went to Edmonton early in February, I picked one up. He was right. It is very useful. It is a self calibrating laser level which automatically aligns itself with gravity and projects a true horizontal and vertical beam. (Or you can lock it so it projects true cross hairs at an angle, but Rod hasn’t found a use for that – yet...) So how does he use 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 sun has been shining. It has been warm and melting for a long time now. The water is running and the open fields are bare. We had Canada geese fly over our yard this week as well. And on Wednesday, Rod was working outside! That has to be the surest sign spring is here!

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

In the first part of this series we talked about the three most common causes that a saddle will lift up at the back – too wide a bar spread, too wide a bar angle and too much rock in the bar for the horse. In the second part we looked at another couple causes – too narrow an angle at the middle of the bar and a rigging that is set way too far forward. So, with all these options, how can you tell which is the cause in a specific case? Here’s a few things you can do to test it out. (I just have to point out that this saddle is too far forward on the horse – up on his shoulder blades when it should be behind 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.

In our last blog post, we described the three most common reasons saddles lift up at the back. These next two reasons are not as common, but are still real.  (We have to point out that this saddle is too far forward, sitting on the horse's shoulder blade. But even with it on a wider part of the horse, it still tilts forward and lifts up at the back on this horse.)

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 question we see not uncommonly on horse forums, and one we were asked a few months ago by a customer’s customer. (Not with this picture - just to be clear!) As with anything to do with saddles and horses, there isn’t one simple answer. But this one is comparatively  simple. We have come up with five reasons why it may be happening, and are open to learning about more…

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’s been a 5 for 5 challenge going around Facebook lately asking people to post five pictures of their work a day for five days in a row. We were asked to participate, and here’s what we posted. Then I did an extra day, just for fun…

First day of five for five. Thought I would start off with swell forks for the first day.

This one is an Arizona Roper. A shot from this angle shows the backsweep on this style of fork.

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

It isn’t often that pieces of a tree get to the finished stage before they get rejected by Rod, the final quality control supervisor. If something isn’t going to make the cut, he usually rejects it earlier in the process that this. But this time he was finished the bar before he decided he wasn’t happy with how the back of it turned out. So after he experimented with and destroyed the whole back end of the bar figuring out how to make things better the next time, we decided to do some testing with what was left. It’s been a while since we did this, and thought it might be fun. Besides, it was too long to fit into the wood stove…

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 may have noticed that, while in the summer I post pictures of Rod grinding away on trees, in the winter you mainly get pictures of him rawhiding, or sometimes cutting something out on the bandsaw. That is because in the winter, he is hidden away for much of the time behind this closed door…

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

Last Friday, I came back from Grande Prairie with 5 hides which Rod dutifully split, trimmed, and put into barrels...