Trying To Educate Myself On Tree Styles(Will James, Assoc.)Etc. How Can I Learn More?

[Billy H]

JW, I sure like the looks of your saddles!!

One of my all time favorites is one you did for wife. Billy

[TroyWest]

Another term for slick fork is an A-fork. When looking at it from the front or rear it is shaped like the letter "A". An A-fork is a slick fork. A swell fork "swells" wider than an "A".

[Huntet02]

Huntet.................you're headed in the right direction.........a Wade is one type of slick fork. As for a Wade being out of the way for roping / as opposed to a swell fork ? Not in my opinion. It doesn't have anything to do with it. If the fork was getting in my way roping...........I'd know that I wasn't roping very good and needed more practice. Swell fork...........slick fork..........it's all about personal preference. I don't like a slick fork of any kind. I've had a couple (wades) over the years..........one of which I made. They rode just fine...............but I just couldn't get to liking how they looked. Too buckaroo for me, probably. JW.

This may seem a bit intrusive but JW would love to see what you ride and rope in everyday.

[jwwright]

No problem, your question is not intrusive to me. Here is a link to a post I put up a while back showing my latest personal saddle. http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=25374

JW

[Huntet02]

In reviewing all these pics its opening my eyes some thanks all. I originally started out looking to buy "Wade" but I have always liked swells and adding bucking rolls seem to be redundant "Why get a Wade if you have to add bucking rolls"? But maybe there is an answer I haven't discovered yet….

Unfortunately I tip forward when I get unbalanced say at a uncomfortable high speed and Denise and I were talking and she also made me aware of some of the seats that can worsen this bad habit like some saddles designed in a way that will always push you forward, that don't have much of a flat spot ahead of the cantle to sit in etc.

So if I'm allowed to ask another question in this same post I'd like to ask... "Which roping saddle seats/forks/ trees would help with a person that tips forward"?

I rode a neighbors old Circle Y the other day it's a western pleasure looking saddle but that seat put me right in the middle every time, my feet/legs could give clearer ques seemed like plus I think it had magic "soft dust" in the seat seriously it felt like nothing me or my husband had ever rode before (he made both of us ride it). My neighbor said that's why he'd never ever sold it even though he didn't have horses anymore it was just way too comfortable...

Bottom Line I think I need to look at a more "well balanced" flatter type Ranch roper saddle…but just thinking out loud.

Edited September 8, 2010 by Huntet02

[Denise]

Tina, the style of fork is as independant of the rider's seat as it is of the fit for the horse. How you feel when sitting in the saddle has to do with how the saddle maker builds the groundseat. Any style of fork/tree can have a good seat built in it, or a bad seat built in it. The better question is "which saddle maker can put in a good seat?"

[jwwright]

Denise...............I will add that the tree maker does have something to do with how the ground seat is made. How the top side of the bars are shaped can help, or hinder, the saddle maker in putting in a ground seat with the shape the maker desires. JW

[Denise]

JW, I agree. But I think a good saddle maker can, with a lot of work, overcome a bad tree if they have to, and a bad saddle maker can wreck a good tree without nearly the same amount of work! Do you think that there is such a thing as a tree that is so bad a good saddle maker can't overcome it to make a good seat in it?

[jwwright]

I sure agree with you Denise. Another factor is just about every saddle maker I've ever visited with has just a bit different idea of what a ground seat should look like, although most have a common theme. Additionally....................the intended use / discipline for the saddle has something to do with the desired shape, along with the current trend or fad within that discipline. There are saddle makers on this forum who have built hundreds more saddles than I have, so I'll defer to them on the last question...................but, I did build a number of saddles on a well respected tree maker's trees that for me, were very difficult to get the seat I wanted . However, most of those turned out to be the favorite saddles of the customers who purchased them................Thanks, JW.

[Denise]

Tina, I apologize. I think I typed too quickly. I should have said "The style of fork CAN BE independant of the fork style". The shape of the fork and the shape of the final groundseat can be totally independant of each other. However, I expect that certain styles of forks are commonly associated with certain events, and those events may have a common type of ground seat to help the rider compete. So while the fork style and seat don't have to correlate, they very well may if you are buying "off the rack" saddles. Now I'll be quiet and let people with far more knowledge in this area type.

PS. JW, looks like we are typing at the same time!