Why a Wade Saddle?

[pella]

Why do Wades style saddles seem so popular, i see them everywhere on the net! Custom saddle makers seem to like them too.

Do they have a special feature i am unaware of? or it is just a fashion...i agree they look nice

[Rod and Denise Nikkel]

I'll start by saying that the most likely reason Wades are so popular today is that a number of popular clinicians and trainers use them so it is a trendy, fashionable type of saddle to ride these days even if you don't work cattle.

That said, the reason some clinicians use them is that they were working cowboys before they were clinicians, and the Wade tree is a good tree to use for roping. That is why it is a very popular saddle for working cowboys to use depending on the area of the continent you are from. One advantage is that the base of the horn is closer to the horse while still clearing the withers on a Wade than on a tree with a metal horn or on a wood post swell fork. Another advantage, depending on the type of roping you do, is the larger diameter of the neck of the horn.

A Wade tree has a wooden horn. If a tree has a metal horn, it is a metal horn slick fork of some sort, not a Wade, regardless of the name tag that comes with it. A fork with a wood post horn that is well made from good quality wood and rawhide has less distance between the base of the horn and the top of the handhole (which we call the gullet thickness). You need enough wood to be strong enough, but no more. For a tree with a metal horn, you need enough wood to hold the screws well. On our trees, we have almost an inch more wood to hold the screws than we need for strength with a wooden horn, so the base of a metal horn ends up that much higher off the horse even with the same clearance at the handhole.

A swell fork can also be made with wooden horn, but if they have any undercut on the sides at all, you can't make them as low as a Wade without distorting the shape. The shape of a slick fork or a fork that rounds into the bars without undercut (such as a Buster Welch type) allows you to lower the gullet height without affecting the shape too much. Something like an association can only be lowered so far before it starts looking like one of those squashed photographs and there is no room left under the swell for the rider's leg. So to keep the shape of most swell forks, they have a taller handhole and gullet than a Wade needs, which raises the base of the horn relative to the horse.

The reason you want the base of the horn close to the horse's back is so when you rope a cow, the pull is low down and doesn't have as much of a leverage effect on the saddle. It is much easier on the horse and helps keep the saddle stay in place better even though 1000 pounds of movable beef is trying to displace it.

Wooden horns have a larger diameter neck because you need more wood to equal the same strength as a metal horn. The larger horn means that you need less wraps when you dally to get the same amount of friction than you do with a metal horn. This is why you see more working cowboys riding Wade type saddles in areas that come more from the vaquero tradition of roping (dallying), and more swell fork, metal horn saddles in the areas where the tie hard and fast roping style was traditionally used. Traditions die hard.

For plain old ordinary riding, fork type makes no difference. It is just personal preference.

Note: "Wade" is now a description of a shape of the fork, and does not have to relate to any other part of the tree, especially bars. Wades do not "fit better" or differently than other fork styles (except in that they are often lower under the gullet) because they have a Wade fork on them. If they do fit differently, it is because they have a different bar pattern, but that is something separate from the shape of the fork. All trees with Wade forks do not have the same bars under them.

[pella]

thank you for this useful answer, they are always interresting.

Another advantage i could see maybe is that you can place the reins lower? As i ride with 2 hands often, i dont like to have the horn in my way...i dont rope at all. Maybe a wade without horn...! But thats would not be a wade of course.

O yes, another question...i see that the wade fork is quite deep, does it begin at the same distance where the seat is, just going deeper on the front bar? or do it place your farther back on the horse back?

[greg gomersall]

Pella it begins at the sma point and extends farthur ahead. Greg

[Rod and Denise Nikkel]

The Wade fork is thicker front to back (stock thickness) than a "normal" metal horn fork. This measurement varies a lot between all styles of forks and tree makers, but slick forks of any type often have a greater stock thickness than swell forks.

To avoid having to make the bar tips a lot longer than normal, backcut is usually used on Wades and other thicker forks. This means that the front of the gullet goes back as it goes down so the fork is narrower where it meets the bars than where the gullet lip is. This can allow the same length of bar in front of the fork cut as on all other trees.

On Wades, there is often a slightly longer (1/2" or so) bar tip in front of the fork cut. Whether this puts the rider 1/2" further back or allows for the shoulder blade to ride under it that extra 1/2" depends on both the shape of the bar tip and the shape of the horse. The length of bar tip is one thing we can change to help fit horses with shoulders that bulge out or come far back into the wither pocket.

[Romey]

Becuase people read and beleive to much Western Horseman

[pella]

Becuase people read and beleive to much Western Horseman

LOL i have the last issue of western horseman and theres a couple fo wades...

[waddy]

I always wonder why someone would want to have Wade or slick fork of any kind made, then put on those ugly bucking rolls as an afterthought. That's why swell fork trees were designed in the first place. To me, it is like building a beautiful custom home with no roof, then putting a blue plastic tarp over it to keep out the rain. From a saddle makers point of view, the Wade/slick fork saddle is easier and quicker to make, as the swell cover doesn't need welts, and the smaller curvature makes it much easier to stamp. They are very pleasing to the eye, and can be very comfortable, just as a well made swell fork can be. The idea of the lower horn is certainly of merit, though practically maybe more so in our imaginations than fact. Many animals have been roped on swell fork saddles with no problem. I don't intend to insult anyone, and I hope I have not done so. This is just my take on them. My heartfelt thanks to Rod and Denise for their wonderful, clear, backed up with fact explanations on this board. My comments here are just opinions.

[bruce johnson]

Regarding the increasing popularity of Wades, Rod and Denise hit it on the head. They have been popular in the great basin area for quite a while. Since slickforks were the original saddle tree style, they just maintained popularity. Ray Hunt took the show on the road, so to speak, and introduced Wades to other parts of the country. Other clinicians have followed suit. There are several versions of Wades - slightly different fork styles.

Probably the biggest reason for the continued popularity of Wades in the west is the bar patterns on the truer to form ones. Generally more surface area on the horse than most swell forks. The great basin is big pasture riding, and so it followed that the bigger bars put less strain on the horses just getting around. When you have one or two saddles and order them custom, most guys order something that has been proven. Not so much for the off-the-rack buyers. Agreed that some swell fork bars are not a problem, but it is pretty hard to look under any saddle and see if the barpads are adequate. There are some swell forks built on good trees, and some have pretty small bars. There are a few varieties of slick fork bars - Northwest, Wade, etc. Each treemakers patterns are probably a little different. I read something I think Greg wrote that Wade trees are probably the most bastardized of any tree style. There are the Homesteads, Cliff Wades, '58, Denny Hunt, help me out...There are a bunch.

With most people it comes down to looks. They see Buck, Ray, Bryan or whoever do some pretty cool stuff with horses, and want to be like them. Yeah, it might be a fad for a lot of people, but there is a definite purpose other than looks for the slick forks to survive.

[Rod and Denise Nikkel]

Waddy, I know you are talking aesthetics, and everyone has their own taste, but you know, those big blue tarps are used mainly in times of disaster. Maybe the analogy isn't that bad after all...