western horse saddles

2009-10-26T22:36:00.001-07:00

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It’s so much fun to go western saddle shopping. But it can be strenuous too, because you don’t what size or how to make sure the saddle is going to fit your horse.

One of the greatest mistakes I see with saddle buying is not making sure the tree is straight. Saddle stores will never tell you about this because they want to sell saddles. But a creditable saddle maker will show you how.

The synthetic trees that a lot of manufacturers are using are made of fiberglass and will twist under pressurized heat. The public line type of saddles will many times have curved trees.

A curved tree will harm your horse’s back. Have you been riding and kept feeling like you are leaning over to one side? and you just couldn’t keep yourself in the center of your horse? If you were to check your saddle, you might find the tree is crooked.

Checking the tree of a new saddle is easy. If you are at the saddle store, and they have saddle racks that are like a hitching post, set the saddle on the bar just like you were saddling a horse. Now stand in front of the saddle and sight down from the horn to the cantle and see if it’s sitting true on the pole. If it’s crooked, it will be very apparent. The saddle will be listing to one side or the other and the horn will not line up with the cantle.

The other way to tell if the tree is true or not is to take the saddle and rest the horn on your foot with the lay waste facing away from you. Then line the saddle up so you are looking down the center of the gullet of the saddle looking to see if one panel is at a different point of view from the other panel. Then sight down lining the horn up with the center of the cantle. If the horn is off center from the center of the cantle by more than a half inch or so, you have a curved saddle tree.

If more people know and assimilate about western saddle trees, then this will save more horses backs, and cause a lot less accidents. Many times horses will buck and back from saddle and back pain. Please take care, and check to see if your saddle is true or not, or before buying a new saddle.

Western Horse Saddle

western horse saddles