Association saddles

[Denise]

Bruce,

I had in my mind that the saddles were placed further forward, right on the horse's shoulders because that is more where the riders want to be on these broncs, and that the bars were shaped differently on the bottom to accomodate this somehow. But with the rigging the way you describe it, it can't be put that much further forward than most saddles, can it? We have never built one and I am also looking forward to hopefully hearing from Robin on this to find out more about the "real", not modified, associations.

[Severe]

I haven't been by the computer for a bit, sorry I missed this one.

Bruce is right, the Assn as we know it came from the Ellensburg tree. The Hamely tree shop did not change the tree at all. It still fit horses and came with a horn. Most of the bronc riders hammered the horn forward or cut it off and built the front of the bars up to help them mark a horse out and get a higher reach with the spur lick.

My dad started building the front of the bars up in the wood at the request of the riders and just leaving the horn off. We also leave a bit more rock in the bars and beef them up a bit in the back because the guys are forever riding the floor checking the binds in the sturrup leathers.

We also leave the fork fuller where your thighs hit it than the Ellensburg tree was. The original fork would bruise the riders thighs.

The modified Assn or improved was slightly lower in front and just refined, same bars.

If you lay the bar patterns out there is quite a differance between the ellensburg and all the hamely roper bars. The ellensburg and wade bar is a full inch shoter than the ropers for the same seat size.RS