Saddle Tree Question

[mjs]

Hello everyone.

I'm about to order a tree and wanted to get some peoples opinions about something before I do. I'm wondering if you could move the swells closer to the front of the bars so you could move the seat forward an inch or two? Does anyone know if this has been done. Would you still be able to get the proper flair on the bars? I've seen some short backed cutting and reining horses where the back of the skirts are about to go over their hips and these horses seem to be getting more common so shouldn't we be looking for ways to account for this? Between this and/or shortening the amount of bar behind the cantle would we be able to fit these horses better or am I off base here. Is there anything else anyone has tried?

Thanks, Mike

[Big Sioux Saddlery]

This is definitely a question for Rod and Denise to answer. I've seen the same issue. A lot of horses just have too short of a back for the saddles they're wearing. I have had the front of the bars "dubbed" and most of the tree makers I've dealt with will shorten the bars a bit if asked. It makes it not as nice to build on if dubbed in the front; there's less bar to nail and screw everything into.

[oltoot]

IMHO dubbing the bars in front would be more preferable than moving the front forward in order to keep from shifting the balance point too far over the poor horse's shoulders. Think about it. The horse is a marvelous creature and that groove just back of the shoulder is a place where extra weight can be tolerated without making it too hard to get the front feet out of the ground for the demands of cutting, etc. In considering the change in leverage created by just an inch with something the size and shape of a twoo-legged. I, too have seen the issue that you have but think that the solution is to be found on the offending end and not the front. Skirts can simply be shorter than the traditional lengths of old and neither do they need to be laced together behind the cantle. They can be left separate and thus give a little more room where you are concerned about. And back to the front. If the bars are well designed to begin with, they will be flared just enough in front that they wont be in full contact unless the horse is standing pretty much straight up as in long trotting from one place to another so redesigning the skirts in front and leaving the tree alone, though as noted by Big Sioux is a little less eye appealing to do would seem to me to be the best approach. And wouldn't you know it, I have just described pretty much what I do when confronted with the issues noted. The Toot toots

[mjs]

Thanks for the replies guys. Shortening the bars sounds like the best choice, then dubbing them if I can't shorten them enough that way. Mike

[Denise]

Shortening the bars may sound like a good thing, but remember that it is taking surface area off your horse so the pressure under any one area will be greater. Some people want short bars because they believe the propaganda that you can't have anything past T18, and that just isn't true. No research says this (though people do) and pretty much every western saddle out there goes past there and all our horses aren't crippled. If the horse is really short backed, then yes, you don't want the bars too long. There are a number of things that can be done with angles on forks and cantles that can be done to get enough room for the rider while making a shorter bar, yet keeping the rider centered on the bar. Just cutting off the back of the bar will end up with the rider's weight pressing down more toward the back of the saddle, and thinking about what happens when you step on the end of a board versus the center tells you how that may work on the horse. (The same thing happens when the cantle is just slid back on a bar so there isn't much bar left behind it.) Moving the fork forward on the bars is the last trick in the book to get a large rider on a small horse. It depends on how it is down, but it is possible to keep the fit the same and do this. But different makers have different amount of bar out the front of their forks anyway. Some seem to have excessively long bar tips to my eye, but that is the way they build them. If you are going to go dubbing off the bars, make sure you add enough relief to the bar tips. Don't just cut them off and leave them with the same shape on the bottom. You need to give them a bit of curve that last inch or so. Bar tips digging in are a great way to harm the horse.