The "government length" on saddle trees

[daviD A Morris]

Here are some pics to try and explain the "government" measurement on a tree. I feel that it is the only true way to compare the seat size between trees as we all know that once you change the cantle height or angle or slope of the fork, the "seat" length, as measured traditionaly, is no longer comparable. I don't know the exact history of it being called "the government". Perhaps someone can fill us in on the history of the term. I was using this measurement as my "base" measurement for many years before I was told by Denis Lane that it is called the govt. Denis said that Warren Wright (tree maker from New Zealand) told him it is called the govt. from its origins of the way that Maclelan cavalry saddles are measured. Maclelans are measured along the top of the bar between the bottom of the fork and cantle. When making a tree it is one of the first measurements that I use, and it "governs" everything else to do with the top of the tree, that which affects fitting the rider.

Does anyone have any more information about this?

Does anyone else call it by this term?

regards

dam

PS this is the first time i've attempted posting pictures on this forum. Hopefully it works, please be patient with me if it don't. I think these jpegs need to be viewed at 100% zoom otherwise they are very pixelated.

Edited January 12, 2009 by Denise

[Rod and Denise Nikkel]

David,

Thank you for your great pictures and clear explanation on your government line. This really is what every hand maker we know uses to set up the whole tree, but is rarely known about among saddle makers.

As far as the name goes, we call the “Chart Lengthâ€Â. Real descriptive name there, but Rod was never given a specific name for it (I doubt Julian knew one), and Rod was only given a couple of charts of measurements when he first started out, with the one for this measurement being the most important. Because we had no name for it at all, we started talking about the “Chart Length†and the name stuck. We have known about the term “government measurement†for a while now, but chart length is so much easier to say, and change is hard…

We use it slightly differently. Rather than measure between the two corners, we draw two vertical lines up the side of the bar first. The distance between these lines is set by our chart length.

Then we mark on the side the lines for the mortise cuts.

So our measurement would be slightly less than the measurement between the two corners because of the angle on that line. But our chart length would always be directly correlated to your government measurement because the angle of that line never changes relative to the bottom of the piece of wood from which the bar is cut.

We agree that the current seat length measurement has so many things that affect it that it is close to useless when comparing actual room for the rider in the saddle. We also use what we call “thigh length†to get a general comparison between trees. We measure that from the front corner of the cantle forward horizontally to the row of nails at the back of the fork. We use thigh length rather than the government measurement to compare trees because there are a few things (like standing the fork up, and changing the angle of the cut on the bar for the cantle, which for us means changing between regular and Taylor cantles) that give differing thigh lengths, up to ¾†or even more for the same government measurement.

So the government measurement gives the length of bar between the cantle and the fork on the midline of the tree, while thigh length gives the length of bar between the cantle and the fork at the edge of the cantle and (close to the edge of) the fork. Either of these measurements is much more useful in comparing actual room in the saddle than the traditional “seat length†measurement.