Rod and Denise Nikkel

We have some of the Leatherworker.net name tags that Johanna left on our table to give out last year. We will have our booth again this year and I will put out the name tags for whoever wants to come pick one up. Our booth is right below the resturant in the East Terrace area.

A few years back we had a new-to-us customer call us up wanting a tree for a Paso Fino. The horse's owner was having problems getting a saddle to fit like she wanted to allow the horse to move the way he was capable of. Since this wasn't our normal western ranch horse, we asked the saddle maker to send back drawings to us. Then we built a tree as we normally would, changing the normal factors that affect fit the way we normally would to fit that shape of horse. We did nothing different that we would have for any other type of horse. And we shipped it off. A while later, we got a letter and another cheque in the mail from the saddle maker. The letter explained that his customer had come back in to him. She was so pleased with how well her horse was moving in the saddle that she gave him a bonus and since he felt that the tree had made a lot of the difference, he was sending half of it on to us! We have had similar comments from other gaited horse customers, and we just build our normal, well designed saddle tree that doesn't Poke (have high pressure points) and distributes the weight (Pressure) over as large a surface area as possible. But that is the only time we have ever received a bonus! A horse is a horse is a horse.

We'll be there too. We'll have a booth and are doing seminars on saddle trees on Thursday.

Nikole Caledon Leather Sales in Calgary is a great place to get leather and other items. http://www.caledonleather.ca/ Give Ken a call and tell him what you need. If he doesn't have it, he can tell you where to get it.

I put up a more thorough write up on what we will be presenting on our website if people want to know more. Here's the link: http://www.rodnikkel.com/content/index.php/seminars/ Plus you can feel free to PM or e-mail us if you have more questions.

We just wanted to let people know that we will be doing two, half day seminars on Understanding Saddle Trees at the Sheridan leather show this year. The morning will be on The Top Side - everything to do with the fork, cantle, room for the rider, etc. The afternoon will be on The Bottom Side - factors that affect fit for the horse, how and why. The show this year is back to being on Friday to Sunday, May 18 - 20. Our seminars are Thursday May 17 so we won't miss any of the show at our booth this year. The link to the show is here: http://www.leathercraftersjournal.com/Rocky_Mtn_Leather_Trade_Show.html From that page there are links to the show booklet and to the sign up pages. Hope to meet a lot of you there this year!

Sure, go ahead Brent. Glad you find the information useful.

I wrote a blog post about how we work with the Dennis Lane system. http://www.rodnikkel.com/content/index.php/saddle-tree-blog-from-shop-and-desk/how-we-use-the-dennis-lane-equine-back-profiling-system-numbers/ We agree with Dennis that this is how everyone needs to correlate what they order from every maker with what their maker's specs are, because every maker does thing differently, you know... However, we don't go around publishing what our correlations are for a few reasons. One is that our specs won't be everyone else's specs for the same fit. (I wrote the Bar angles: why the numbers are meaningless between makers web page to help explain why: http://www.rodnikkel.com/content/index.php/tree-and-saddle-fitting/bar-angles-why-the-numbers-are-meaningless-between-makers/) Another reason is that people have differences in how they like a tree to fit. (Imagine, not everyone agrees on saddle fit. Hmmm...) Plus there is so much to learn about horses' backs when you have an objective standard to compare them to, and so you can compare between horses as well. Once you know "The backs are the same here but different in this section", you can put up the same tree on both horses and check those differnt places. You see things you didn't notice before. I know we have learned a lot using it. Have fun!

Horsecloud, Your best bet is to check out the websites of makers on here whose saddles or trees you like the looks of. Check out the gallery in the saddle and tack section for some saddle pictures along with the directory on the line up top right under the Leatherworker.net banner. Whcn you contact them, ask what they recommend you do fit wise. There are no standards on how to get the templates/measurements to a maker. There are a lot of different methods of doing it. The saddle maker will know what they need for the trees they use or build. Go with their instructions.

Mike, there just aren't that many hand made saddle tree makers around, and we don't know of any "how to" videos out there either. All the tree makers who work at it for a living that we know have pretty large and expensive equipment they use in the process, so it isn't like saddle making where you can do it in your basement as a hobby or part time job. I know you can build a few just by "whittling away anything that doesn't look like a saddle tree" but to be consistent or to make enough in a year to make a living at it you have to have ways of being consistent in what you are doing. With your background and skills, maybe you can figure out another way. A hint - if you are working off production trees as your base, start by making the bars themselves wider. Production trees are all less than 6" wide (sometimes by a fair amount) because 6" wide wood costs less with less waste than 8" wide. Most hand made trees we have see have bars that are wider than 6". Especially for pack trees, more surface area is better. All the best in your endeavors. PS. Thanks for your kind words on our pack trees.

Building a pack tree would be simpler than building a riding tree. But while it isn't rocket science, building a saddle tree that works isn't as simple as making a reverse shape of the horse's back either. Horses move, and allowances have to be made in the design of the bars so that relief is given where it needs to be given and yet as much contact is made as can be made. I don't want to sound self-serving, but starting with good patterns and a good foundation of knowledge would let you build a functional tree far faster than starting back at square one where the first person every to build a tree had to start. We don't want to discourage innovation. After all, some amazing discoveries are made by people who didn't know "you can't do it that way". But "we see farther because we stand on the shoulders of giants". Just some thoughts...

In terms of prices and wait times, it is always good to check with the different makers as prices do vary between makers and the wait times change depending on how many orders they had had in the last while. Right now our wait time is only about 2 months, so you can get a tree fairly quickly at the moment. I know a lot of other makers are not nearly as backed up as they were a few years ago either, so a phone call or e-mail is worth it.

We have wondered the same thing. The horse's back doesn't change shape if they carry packs rather than riders, and dead weight is generally harder on them than a living, moving rider. Looking at what is sold in the market place (I've seen carriage bolts sticking out the bottom of the bars) you wonder that more animals don't buck off their packs. Part of the answer may be that it you can't attach the cross pieces at the back in the same way (at the same angles) when you have adequate twist in the bars, so it complicates the building process. The same goes for the decker hardware where the front and back are built identically to fit two very different angles. But that is no excuse for not building pack trees to fit well. When we build pack trees, we build the bars to have the same shape and options for fit as our riding saddles. We had to do some major R and D to figure out how to get cross pieces and decker hardware to attach properly front and back with the bottom of the bars the way we want, but it can be done. We have pictures up on our website here to give you an idea of how we build ours: http://www.rodnikkel.com/content/index.php/pictures-of-trees/pack-trees/

Thanks Ben!

Knut, Glad you find it interesting. I was hoping someone would! Ben, there is an RSS feed at the bottom of the main blog page. Is there a better place for it that you would recommend? I looked and I don't think I can move it, but maybe Kate can. Thanks for the feedback.

More "shameless self promotion" here. I have a few posts in a series I am doing on equine anatomy, biomechanics and how they relate to saddles, trees and how they work together (ie. "saddle fit"). I have them all linked together and the first of the series is here: http://www.rodnikkel.com/content/index.php/saddle-tree-blog-from-shop-and-desk/meet-arnie/ I have put up some of the special requests we have done lately: duplicate trees: http://www.rodnikkel.com/content/index.php/saddle-tree-blog-from-shop-and-desk/duplicating-trees-part-1-taking-them-apart/ Hamley hangers: http://www.rodnikkel.com/content/index.php/saddle-tree-blog-from-shop-and-desk/hamley-hangers/ and today I added a Charro tree: http://www.rodnikkel.com/content/index.php/saddle-tree-blog-from-shop-and-desk/a-charro-saddle-tree/ As I write the posts, I try to include information I think people who like saddles will be interested in knowing. If anyone has any comments or suggestions on ideas for posts or how to make the blog better, please let me know. Comments on the posts can also be left at the bottom of that page.

Jeff and Tom, thanks for the kind words about our website. Our aim in putting it up was to help people understand more about trees and it is nice to read that people are finding it useful.

Tom, The 15 or 16 inch measurements are the seat length of the saddle, meant to tell you how much room there is for the rider. It has nothing to do with the fit for the horse. Depending on the design of the tree, they can fit a range of horse back types, but 90% of all horses in the US? That is really pushing it... We put up our website to help people who are interested learn more about trees. A couple pages you may want to look at to start are Measuring a Saddle Tree here: http://www.rodnikkel...-a-saddle-tree/ and Factors That Affect Tree Fit here: http://www.rodnikkel...ffect-tree-fit/ There's lots more on the site, but that should give you a good start on answering your questions.

If we were asked to do another one, we would sure consider it, but there is nothing booked at the moment. We sure enjoyed doing the seminar.

NewLeather, Glad I could help you know what it isn't. But I can't help you know what it is since I'm not into the "vintage" saddles. There are others on the board who can give you good advice though. From looking at its excellent condition, it hasn't been roped out of, whatever it was meant to be for.

Sorry I can't help you with information about your saddle, but maybe I can help with some misinformation you have been given. A slick fork is not synonymous with a Wade. A slick fork is simply one where the widest point of a fork is at the bottom where it meets the bars. A swell fork goes out wider than than and has to come back in to meet the bars. A Wade is a specific type of slick fork: It has a wood post horn - not metal, extra thick stock (measurement front to back of the fork) traditionally 5", a thin gullet so the base of the horn is lower to the horse's back, and a few more special features which we describe on our website here: http://www.rodnikkel.com/content/index.php/pictures-of-trees/wades/ The first Tom Dorrance Wade tree was built in the late 30's, so to be "pre-Wade" a saddle would have to have been built before that time, and they sure wouldn't have been precursors to the Wade. I've never heard that term before and I doubt it has any real meaning. The style has become really popular over the last 25 - 30 years due to some good clinicians riding that style, starting with Tom Dorrance and Ray Hunt. Now it seems that if you put "Wade" in the title of a saddle you can ask more money for it, sort of like putting a horse rather than a cow on a product you sell for livestock. I've seen all sort of things called Wades, including metal horn swell forks. I would love to get the real definition of some of these terms onto some of the horse forums so more riders will have real, solid information about saddles. A lot of what is out on the net as "fact" is anything but. NewLeather, if you have contacts where you can get the word out as to what a Wade really is, it would give saddle and tree makers a lot more time since we wouldn't have to give the explanation so often! Thanks. Getting off now...

Denise here. Wondering if the saddle makers can help answer a couple questions for me to expand my knowledge base about riggings - Can you post pictures or drawings of the different styles of rigging, and tell me why people choose to use one type over the other. Not trying to start any wars here. I know they are all strong enough and all have their place. But are there specific events that prefer one type and why? Are there places where a specific rigging type doesn't work well? Doing a bit of research here and figured I should ask the experts - the people who build them!

For whatever it is worth... Here are a couple pictures of the old saddle that sits in our living room. Rod has owned it for 30+ years now. Rescued it from destruction by neglect. No maker's marks on it either, but the high back cantle, leather rings (front ones used to have leather on them) etc. make it look like a late 1800's style saddle. The bucking rolls have been redone because the leather on the original ones was worn through, but these were made the same, just without the fancy stitching the originals had. (Couldn't afford that on cowboy wages.) Posting pictures of this one side by side with yours for comparison's sake (hope you don't mind my reposting your pictures) shows the similarities between the bucking rolls on the slick fork and the backswept slight swells on yours. There were a couple pictures in the previous links that had slight swells like yours does, and Rod remembers seeing some like that in the King museum in Sheridan. But yours is more pronounced than we have seen before. Just a guess, but it looks to us like someone was experimenting, trying to build the bucking rolls into the fork before swell forks arrived on the scene in the early 1900's. Trying to make a swell out of a slick. A swell-slick. A sw-ick. A swick. Hmmm, maybe that will catch on...

Ryan, you do dress up those trees really pretty! Rod

We just wanted to let people know we have started a blog on our website about saddle trees. We have called it "From Shop and Desk" because we hope to share things we are doing and have learned, not just in the shop but also through doing research and reading. Here's the link: http://www.rodnikkel.com/content/index.php/saddle-tree-blog-from-shop-and-desk/