Notice the bottom of this tree. The bottom is called the bars, and this contacts the horse's back. It must be smooth and rounded to fit a wide variety of horses! If it is made flat to fit one horse as it can be made if fitted, It will only fit horses with the same back shape and only in the same physical condition of the horse it was fitted to! It also has a curvature called the "ROCK" cause it is shaped like a rocking chair! If it is made without this rock only the front and rear of the bar would contact the horses back. The purpose of the ideal bar is to place the weight on the inside of the bar from the center outward, therefore the roundness or convex shape of the surface and the rock!
MORE PICTURES TO FOLLOW!
MORE PICTURES TO FOLLOW!
THE TRUTH versus THE MARKETING PLOY
The method used by many to market their product is to cast doubt into the mind of the consumer! With the follow up of telling the consumer how much better their own product is when addressing the fault the unscrupulous marketer hopes to steal the sale. This is not only unfair to the competitor, it creates problems and doubt for the consumer! Working Cowboys especially in the past rode a horse harder and further than those in the show ring.
About the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th Century many were riding small horses with narrow backs commonly from Mustang stock. The Federal Government placed many Quality TB Studs out on ranches to upgrade the selection of horses for the Cavalry remount. Many ranchers bred these horses to Draft mares creating the Quarterhorse! Some of the TB horses had sprinting speed and some had speed over a distance! I know a lot of people won't like to hear this but if you back way up on the pedigrees you see things like Jones mare with a TB sire! The Quarter Horse wouldn't be there without the work mare or the Thoroughbred and the TB wouldn't have been here without the Arabian background. These powerful horses stood 14 or 15 hands tall and had broad flat backs!
The saddle made for the Mustang no longer fit! By the 40s the backs had changed and a wider saddle had to be made! If you want a bad fitting saddle try using one of those saddles made in 1890s on the horse of today! IT DID FIT THE HORSE BACK THEN!
A very common BAD advice some self proclaimed expert would give back in the 50s was to "Throw that new saddle in the horse tank and soak it over nite then ride it till it dries!" You could do this on a saddle in 1850 because the front of the tree called a fork WAS ACTUALLY MADE OF A TREE FORK! The saddle made in 1950 had a mitered box corner or Dado notched swell in the center of the fork or Swell! Soaking the saddle would wet the glue used on this joint and soaked the rawhide cover and riding it till it dried caused the fork to spread which in turn made the tree too wide. This caused the bottom of the fork to rest on the horses withers and often cause what is called fistulous withers from inflamed bursae.
Today's trees are seldom built this way. They are usually laminated of horizontal and vertical grain wood using 2 thicknesses. I build mine generally of 2 or 3 thicknesses if using oak reinforcing as seen on the tree at the top. If using only 2, I use a thicker cross grain in front. When using 3 I prefer 1" vertical OAK in the center. It is common to use wood glue today as in the past which being soaked as the bad advice spoken of above can still damage the tree. I use Epoxy for my "Glue" and coat the tree with fiberglass as a waterproofing finish prior to rawhide. STILL, NEVER SOAK A SADDLE IN WATER!
As to fit, the bars in my tree have more twist as did some good trees in the past. There IS a bar pattern being used by several that has less twist and does not fit front and rear at the same time. If it fits the rear without digging in, it creates a wide ride in front under the riders knees causing some horses to have a gap between the back just below the withers and the lower edge of the bar. If it is made to fit in front then the back lower edge of the bar will dig in near the kidney area. This can be observed by taking the saddle apart and "Reading" the skirts. This rub will not always leave dry spots! We will discuss dry spots in the proper saddling page of the website.
PLEASE KEEP CHECKING BACK FOR FURTHER ADDITIONS TO THE WEBSITE!
Examine the pictures below illustrating a tree fitted to "horse" F, and how the same saddle does not fit any of the rest of the "horses"! This is using a flatter fitted bar as the tree makers that claim to fit a saddle commonly use.
About the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th Century many were riding small horses with narrow backs commonly from Mustang stock. The Federal Government placed many Quality TB Studs out on ranches to upgrade the selection of horses for the Cavalry remount. Many ranchers bred these horses to Draft mares creating the Quarterhorse! Some of the TB horses had sprinting speed and some had speed over a distance! I know a lot of people won't like to hear this but if you back way up on the pedigrees you see things like Jones mare with a TB sire! The Quarter Horse wouldn't be there without the work mare or the Thoroughbred and the TB wouldn't have been here without the Arabian background. These powerful horses stood 14 or 15 hands tall and had broad flat backs!
The saddle made for the Mustang no longer fit! By the 40s the backs had changed and a wider saddle had to be made! If you want a bad fitting saddle try using one of those saddles made in 1890s on the horse of today! IT DID FIT THE HORSE BACK THEN!
A very common BAD advice some self proclaimed expert would give back in the 50s was to "Throw that new saddle in the horse tank and soak it over nite then ride it till it dries!" You could do this on a saddle in 1850 because the front of the tree called a fork WAS ACTUALLY MADE OF A TREE FORK! The saddle made in 1950 had a mitered box corner or Dado notched swell in the center of the fork or Swell! Soaking the saddle would wet the glue used on this joint and soaked the rawhide cover and riding it till it dried caused the fork to spread which in turn made the tree too wide. This caused the bottom of the fork to rest on the horses withers and often cause what is called fistulous withers from inflamed bursae.
Today's trees are seldom built this way. They are usually laminated of horizontal and vertical grain wood using 2 thicknesses. I build mine generally of 2 or 3 thicknesses if using oak reinforcing as seen on the tree at the top. If using only 2, I use a thicker cross grain in front. When using 3 I prefer 1" vertical OAK in the center. It is common to use wood glue today as in the past which being soaked as the bad advice spoken of above can still damage the tree. I use Epoxy for my "Glue" and coat the tree with fiberglass as a waterproofing finish prior to rawhide. STILL, NEVER SOAK A SADDLE IN WATER!
As to fit, the bars in my tree have more twist as did some good trees in the past. There IS a bar pattern being used by several that has less twist and does not fit front and rear at the same time. If it fits the rear without digging in, it creates a wide ride in front under the riders knees causing some horses to have a gap between the back just below the withers and the lower edge of the bar. If it is made to fit in front then the back lower edge of the bar will dig in near the kidney area. This can be observed by taking the saddle apart and "Reading" the skirts. This rub will not always leave dry spots! We will discuss dry spots in the proper saddling page of the website.
PLEASE KEEP CHECKING BACK FOR FURTHER ADDITIONS TO THE WEBSITE!
Examine the pictures below illustrating a tree fitted to "horse" F, and how the same saddle does not fit any of the rest of the "horses"! This is using a flatter fitted bar as the tree makers that claim to fit a saddle commonly use.