Ordering a tree by the bars

[jonwatsabaugh]

GH brought up that age old question, "How close does it really have to be?" Ah, this is the one we wrestle with, the one we agonize over, the one that sometimes causes us to break out in a cold sweat. There are so many ways to approach this question, and most of the time we over think the issue. Years ago I worked for a company that was trying to implement Statistical Process Control into the whole company system. It was an intense process of data collection for analysis to improve production and hence the bottom line. It never worked for them, though, because of apathy and lack of conviction among the staff. It was a very time consuming and complicated process. I guess I have adopted a stripped down, highly simplified version of this for myself. This system is nothing more than sampling a large group and arriving at a “mean” or what I consider a compromise. This is where I came up with that term “base line”. My data to arrive at base line, however, does not include what I consider junk horses. I wish one size fit all but it doesn't. I think it only reasonable though, to restrict the number of base lines in a system or you loose order and control over it. Will there be times I step way outside the mean? Probably, but I hope its a rare occasion. For example, this past summer I sent a tree in the wood through a third party to the end user who happened to live in Colorado. Third party contacted me and said it didn't look good on two of the three horses it was fit to. I said OK, let me take a look at some good pics. Got tree and pics back...he was right. All three horses were mature in structure, two were very broad with protruding shoulder muscling, and probably were not ridden very hard. My intuition told me this is the condition they probably would remain in. One horse was acceptable with the base line but the other two required much more rock , more flair, and wider bar spacing. What's a guy to do? Right wrong or indifferent, I fit the two larger horses and let it go. The horse closer to base line could carry saddle and rider much better with this saddle than the other two could with a base line tree. All things considered, this was my intuitive response. As time goes on I'm sure there will come an occasion where I will decline the job. These are always tough decisions, but if I think I can be all things to all people I'm only fooling myself.

An area of importance that has only been briefly mentioned is padding. This is a discussion that could be carried to infinity also.

To date I haven't had any experience with the equimeasure system. I can visualize it working fine as long as it was accurately molded and arrived undistorted. I would want to pack this thing really well. U.P.S. isn't very kind to packages sometimes. Still not real interested in fittin' to that unless it's close to my base line, but as you read earlier, I've already broken that rule.

As far as the back map goes, my idea was to make a fiberglass mold from the bottom side of the bars from an assembled tree and make a casting from that to send out. Kinda like what Steele does... I wasn't very clear about that.

Jon

[Rod and Denise Nikkel]

how close does it really have to be

Here is something (slightly reworked) that we posted a while back, and the more we talk about it, the more I think this is the philosophy we work from.

Saddle fitting is not rocket science. There are two basic rules:

1.) Don’t get in his way. Make sure that the edges – the front, back, top and bottom of the bar don’t dig in anywhere, and the cantle and fork gullets don’t contact the horse.

2.) Within those margins, keep as much contact with the horse as you can over as much area as possible without breaking rule #1. In other words, shape it the way they are shaped as much as possible.

If you do those two things, you will have a good fit. We are not trying to fit camels, elephants and donkeys here. A horse is built like a horse, with some variations. Problems arise quickly when rule number one is broken. You can have a fair amount of leeway with rule number two and still “get away with it” (ie. not hurt the horse) because of the movement of the horse under the saddle. This is why if you have a tree that is correct in the basics, it will fit a wide range of horses well enough to be used comfortably.

[Romey]

Here is something (slightly reworked) that we posted a while back, and the more we talk about it, the more I think this is the philosophy we work from.

Saddle fitting is not rocket science. There are two basic rules:

1.) Don’t get in his way. Make sure that the edges – the front, back, top and bottom of the bar don’t dig in anywhere, and the cantle and fork gullets don’t contact the horse.

2.) Within those margins, keep as much contact with the horse as you can over as much area as possible without breaking rule #1. In other words, shape it the way they are shaped as much as possible.

If you do those two things, you will have a good fit. We are not trying to fit camels, elephants and donkeys here. A horse is built like a horse, with some variations. Problems arise quickly when rule number one is broken. You can have a fair amount of leeway with rule number two and still “get away with it” (ie. not hurt the horse) because of the movement of the horse under the saddle. This is why if you have a tree that is correct in the basics, it will fit a wide range of horses well enough to be used comfortably.

Thats the most sense I heard on this subject from this forum yet. I think one can get to hung up on tree fit when overall saddle fit, pads, type of work one is going to do, ect is the other equation. Unless a person is exactly fitting a perticular horse, and I really dont know why one would do that, we should be fitting horses in general, all horses as best we can, atleast I have to.

In spring and summer I may have to be on 3 horses a day for long periods of time. unless there is a huge differance I and every hand I know only hauls one saddle ever, My opinion is get me close, Ill get the rest of the way. I will switch saddles on the same horse depending on the country im riding in though if i can or need to.