Old Saddles Fitting New Horses...why Not?

[thenrie]

I have read a lot about old saddles from the late 1800s to early 1900s won't fit modern horses, but I haven't yet figured out exactly why. I'm assuming it's because modern horses are broader in the shoulders and flatter in the back, but I don't know. I would appreciate a knowledgeable person explaining in more technical terms, bar angles, etc. I have a real hankering to buy and restore an old saddle, but I want to be able to use it. I see saddles offered all the time on ebay that would be good starters for such a project, but if I'm going to do it, I have to be able to use it, because wifey won't let me have a saddle display in the house. Not her style of decor.

[thenrie]

Here's a sample of what I'm asking about.

[Ken Nelson]

Here's a sample of what I'm asking about.

Most of the saddles from the era you are asking about are very narrow in the gullet. They were built for horses with a strong thoroughbred influence. Also horses in those days were generally rode a lot harder than horses are today. Different type of horses than most of todays horses and a lot leaner condition on most in by-gone days. Once in a while you will find one of those old ones that will fit todays horses. Just my opinion. Ken

[thenrie]

Most of the saddles from the era you are asking about are very narrow in the gullet. They were built for horses with a strong thoroughbred influence. Also horses in those days were generally rode a lot harder than horses are today. Different type of horses than most of todays horses and a lot leaner condition on most in by-gone days. Once in a while you will find one of those old ones that will fit todays horses. Just my opinion. Ken

So do they just not fit Quarter Horses, or horses in general? Will they still fit a Thoroughbred, Standardbred, or Walker? All of those generally have taller withers and narrower shoulders than a QH.

Are the old saddles even narrower than semi-QH bars? Do they have more rocker in the bars? Different angles? Sure would like some technical info.

Edited October 20, 2012 by thenrie

[Rod and Denise Nikkel]

thenrie,

Old saddles (disclaimer - good old saddles, there were bad ones back then too, just not as many!) will still fit horses of the same body type as the horses they fit back then - but there are darn few 800 - 900 lb working cow horses these days... A book written by Francis Dwyer in 1868 said that the ideal, average cavalryman was 145 1/2 lbs. Not a lot of active, adult men in that body weight in North America these days either, though they still exist. If you look at old pictures of cowboys and see their size relative to the horses they are riding, and realize how much smaller most people were back then too, you get a feel for how large our riding horses have become.

Here are some pictures to show you the difference in some trees we have hanging on our wall in the basement. Sorry for picture quality. It is rather dim down there.

Here are two trees. The one on the left is probably from the age group you are asking about. The one on the right is a 25 to 30 year old hand made tree.

Very narrow, very steep angle, very round crown all the way down the bars

This tree is probably from the 80's - 1980's that is... It would be the "4 x 90" that fit well on most working ranch horses then (not so much now depending on the area of the country) and would probably be somewhere in the "semi-quarter horse" range of today - though you really can't compare between makers... You can see how much wider it is in bar spread and how much flatter the bar angle is, not to mention the increase in bar surface area due to increase in bar width. Horses today have that much more surface area to put bars on because, on the whole, they are that much larger an animal than they were 130 years ago.

Although I hate to do it... Here is a comparison between those two and a modern "flex tree" that we duplicated (replaced the tree in the old leather) so they would have a saddle that didn't sore their horses. Anyway, this is a very wide tree, but it isn't uncommon for what is being sold out there these days. A lot of trees, we feel, are being made too wide (the pendulum swings...) but again, you can see the difference in bar spread between the flex tree and the 30 year old tree.

You can tell your wife that they do make good living room ornaments though. This one had a fair amount of amateur work put into it a few years ago (25 to 30?) and was ridden, but was too small for both horses and anyone older than about 13 years old, so now it sits and I dust it on the odd occasion.

Hope this helps!

Edited October 20, 2012 by Rod and Denise Nikkel

[thenrie]

Thank you, Rod and Denise, for that explanation. That clears up a lot.