tree fit question

[Ken Nelson]

Ok, I believe if you consult with "real cowboys-horsemen" out of big, rough ranch country you will find a general agreement on fitting saddles on horses.  Remember these people ride horses hard, long hours in varying terrain, doing a lot of different kinds of work.  Everything from covering miles and miles of country a day, to sorting cattle a horseback, roping heavy cattle, roping fast cattle, dragging cows out of bogs and the list goes on.  What I have learned by  being around these people is the following.

#1.  If you sore up your horses, you are on the fence or hay crew or going down the road.

 2. Years ago, many years ago, almost everyone rode a certain type of horse and a good saddle fit about everything you rode

 3  Now a days, you either ride one type of horse or you have more than one saddle to fit the different types you are riding

 4. Soring backs is possible with a very good fitting saddle, properly built if you use poor quality blankets, pads etc, don't keep them fairly clean

    and do not ride well and do not saddle a horse properly.

5.  The picture Bruce posted is priceless.  I have a tree in my shop  that fits a horse just like that.  It is still bare but it has had over 300 sets of stirrup leathers stretched and shaped on it.

6.  In conclusion,  get a high quality saddle that fits your horse that is suitable for the type of riding you do AND fits your horse correctly

     Buy quality blankets and pads to put under your saddle.  Keep them clean  If you can not afford quality tack, you may need to reconsider owning and riding horses.  I have never seen a good cowboy-horseman put a gunny sack, piece of carpet or bed blanket  under his saddle.

     Learn to properly saddle your horse, learn to sit a proper seat, if you don't already know how. 

   7. Watch your horse's back and address little problems before they become big problems.

[SaddleBags]

Great words, Nelson!!!

That is about as concise as you can get and I agree with every single word. 

[Ken Nelson]

To back up a bit here;  when you talk about a horse rounding up his back on hard and sliding stops, if you notice the pictures of the professionals doing it- notice most of them do not have a flank cinch. This allows the rear of the saddle to "lift" off of the horses back.  In my opinion, the saddle does not lift off of the loin, the loin drops down from the saddle.  If you were to ride one of these horses with a wide flank cinch like ropers and ranch cowboys ride and kept it snug, it would interfer with the horses ability to do these  stops and slides. But then again no horses stop harder than a good calf horse.     Now,  most calf saddles are pretty short seated, do you suppose that has anything to do with their ability to stop so hard and keep stopping hard.   It is all interesting, isn't it.

One indicator on how well saddles fit in my world is dry spots.  However, a good percentage of horses are not rode long or hard enough for that to be an indicator.  One indicator is often a horse that is  "cold backed" is or has been ridden quite a lot with an ill fitting saddle or a "blanket-pad" problem.  Given some time,  the "ouch" spots will numb up for the rest of the day to a point.  Same thing often makes horses quit pulling. A few months ago I saw a perfect example of this at a ranch rodeo  in Valentine NE.   This overweight fella was riding a pretty little paint horse that really wasn't big enough to carry his bulk.  Add into this, the man was riding a saddle that looked to be a 14 inch seat and was a very poor quality production saddle.  The horse humped around for a good 5 minutes when he first got on him.  Not only was this man riding a horse too small for him, a saddle too small for him, a poor quality saddle,  the man rode like a sack of potatoes, sitting up on the cantle of his saddle.  Guess what,  he did get a sloppy loop on a 450# critter and paint would not pull him one step. 

I rest my case!!

[mikesh]

Thanks everyone,

I was originally thinking of a very limited situation where a slight deviation from the norm might be helpful. Question asked and answered, thanks. 

Also, when Bruce posted there had been previous threads on this, I was able to figure out what I did wrong on my previous search on the subject, so I got a two-fer.    Mike