Selecting a saddle tree

[Hidemechanic]

What do you look for when selecting a saddle tree?

Are there ways to narrow down who to buy from without being able to see or handle their tree?

[David Genadek]

As you define the market you will be building for your tree choice will become clear.

David Genadek

[Rod and Denise Nikkel]

Are there ways to narrow down who to buy from without being able to see or handle their tree?

Our answer to that is unfortunately that, no, there really isn't. You can do the research and decide what material you want them built from (wood and rawhide is best – no bias in that statement ). And you talk to other guys to see what their opinions of different tree makers are. But to really make a decision, you need to get them in your hands and put them on some horses, or you really can't tell how they are made or, more importantly, how well they will fit. There are no numbers or terms that can tell you how a tree will fit. It is like women's clothing – doesn't matter what the size says, you have to try it on to see if it fits. Every tree maker shapes them differently and uses different angles on varying parts of the tree, so even 90 or 93 degrees really means diddly-squat when comparing between makers. And fit is the #1 thing we feel you should look for in a tree. That said, then you have to learn how to order the different things to get trees to fit different horses, which is a whole other 18 or so topics…

What do you look for when selecting a saddle tree?

For us, it has to have the basic design to fit a horse well. Beyond that, you should be able to work with the tree maker to understand how and why they change things to fit different horses so you get what you want and need.

It needs to have solid construction – good quality wood without knots and a decent thickness of rawhide rather than "chicken skin" if you go with that type of tree. You can see through a lot of rawhide to get a bit of an idea of the wood. What type of wood is it? Hardwood adds a lot of strength to a tree compared to pines. Is it laminated at all? How many layers? This will be more important if the tree will be roped off or put to hard use compared to basic pleasure riding, but you never know where a saddle with your name on it will end up, so that also needs to be considered.

It should be square with itself – fork and cantle are put on the bars evenly front to back and side to side. The horn should be square and centered on the fork. These are just givens. Things put on crooked are simply bad workmanship.

We will accept a small amount of rock on a dead flat surface. Rawhide and wood are natural materials and they will move. That is also a given. A little amount actually feels like a lot. We measure by kneeling down and measuring from the stone to the bottom of the high bar. But even 1/8" (absolute maximum for us) will only give you 1/16" difference from one side of the horse to the other, and I don't know of any horses that are that symmetrical themselves.

It should have a shape to its seat that makes it easy for you to put in a groundseat. We have had a number of people tell us that the difference in cost on the tree is more than made up in time saved putting in their groundseat.

The rawhide should be tight to the wood, held in place with good nails. Rawhide lacing is definitely the way to go. Nylon is only ever used for cost purposes. The seams should not be all lumpy and bumpy but have been pounded flat. There should be minimal gapping of the seams, but honestly, sometimes they just gap. It is very frustrating, but it really does have to do a lot with the weather – heat and humidity levels. We are not overly concerned about it other than from an aesthetic viewpoint since we know that once that hide is dry, even if you cut the strings that rawhide is not going anywhere except under severe duress. But we don't like it either.

Those are the basics. Of course if you choose different materials there may be other factors. But the tree should #1 – fit horses, #2 – be constructed strongly enough to withstand normal use and abuse and #3 – be easy to build on. At least, that is our opinion…

[Don101]

What about style of the tree or what you might want to have as a finished type of saddle, or can and do all tree makers be able to make old style as well as a modern roping saddle ( wades) or do they just stick to a style they know? Don

[Rod and Denise Nikkel]

Don,

I can't really speak for other makers, but it is always worth asking your tree maker if they can and do make the style you are interested in. You can only put so many pictures in a catalogue and I would suspect that there are many more styles available from some companies than you would know about without asking.

As for the hand made guys - that is the fun part of being a custom maker. We make what you want. Old, new, wide, narrow, tall, short, flat seats, bar risers, unique shapes - whatever. We have made individually designed forks and cantles for experimentally minded saddle makers. (I have a section in our photo album entitled "Whatever They Want".) Everything is negotiable. But we will work with you to get what you need in strength, etc. as well as what you want in looks. And if we really think what you are asking is not really a good idea, we will try to explain why. (And we do reserve the right to say no, but I don't know that we have used that right yet, except for Arizona bars...) Our order forms have 18 areas of specifications for you to give. We put those in blue ink. Beyond that the special requests go in red ink. Some orders have as much red as blue on them. I expect most hand makers are the same. All it takes is a phone call (or e-mail if you live in Germany!!).

The most important thing is to be able to communicate with your tree maker. Do they listen to your ideas? If they are asking you to do something different than what you want, do they have good explanations as to why? Are you willing to listen to them when they try to explain why your idea may need some modification? We have built some pretty wild looking trees at times, but so long as they are structurally sound and so long as the customer knows what they are getting, we will try our best to make them the way they want them.

[Hidemechanic]

I have tree catalogs that have pages and pages of different styles and configurations of trees.I think there were so many because many of the big time rodeoers and anyone winning something out of a saddle got a tree put in the cataloge under his name as a tree type. Customers would say I want Buster Welch, Olin Young, Crosby, as well as other styles that I don't know how they got their names.

As time went by in the past 20yrs. the selections appearing in a tree makers cataloge has dropped significantly. I spent my first couple years as a saddlemaker pouring over those old cats to find that there were really only a few basic styles and everyone wanted a little something different that they thought would improve the usefullenss of their saddle.

When you look at a tree cataloge you will see 4 basic elements of the tree, The bars the cantle, the swell and the horn. If you are new and starting out this all seems confusing and you don't know where to start but maybe the best thing is to get a picture of a saddle you like and get with a tree maker and discuss basics. If he can see what you are shooting for he will help you come up with something that will suit your intrests. If you are or are not building this saddle for a specific horse the tree maker will help you with that part of selection as well.

Most of this has been referred to by Rod and Denise and others, as for maybe a more specific responce to Don 101, in a simplified sence, a tree maker will take a chunk of wood and whittle it to the shape you are looking for. So the answer to your question is yes a tree maker can make a tree to fit the style of saddle you want as your finished product. I don't know too many that aren't willing to help you do that.GH