Hello, I really enjoy reading your blog. I think most riders actually want to know how to get a saddle that fits well and is comfortable for their horse, but we’re pretty clueless. So thanks for all the insight you’ve provided thus far!

I was wondering, since you mention repeatedly how important it is for a tree to be the right shape, why saddle fitters don’t all have a set of inexpensive model trees made of plastic that could be set on the horse’s back to determine that the shape is a good one before the saddle belonging to that tree is ever tried on the horse? It seems like this would be inexpensive, highly portable, and very useful.
Of course this would require cooperation on the part of saddle manufacturers, but if a group of saddle fitters got together and made the request it seems like it could happen- not to mention all the people who aren’t saddle fitters that are saddle shopping- I bet it would still be better than just sending in tracings and shipping saddles back and forth for trials.

swgarasu:

I am so glad you asked that question! I think there is a two-part answer to this.

In the first place, I don’t think most saddle fitters in this country are really taught to look at the process of saddle fitting in this way. When I first got into this biz, I learned something about the mechanics of saddle fitting, but almost nothing about the underlying concepts.

The typical sales call procedure was: first have the customer sit on some saddles on the plastic fitting horse to establish which model the customer liked. The next step was to determine which width was the best match for the horse’s wither tracing. The last piece was to artfully stuff the panels to try to balance the saddle. Sometimes a particularly deep panel or some other special feature was needed to coax the saddle to sit level.

From what I gather, some variation of this is pretty prevalent in the way that new saddles are sold in this country, regardless of whether they are “custom-fit” to the horse they are going on. (IMHO the whole concept of “custom” really needs a good, hard look.)

Now, as to why what you are suggesting is not common procedure: Imagine the dismay of a customer who is all ready to buy a saddle she really likes, only to back out of the purchase when she realizes from looking at the bare tree on her horse’s back that its shape is really a lousy match for the contours of her particular horse. Oh dear. How very inconvenient.

But fundamentally, what you suggest does make sense: fitters should have trees to work with and should carefully study the trees that are in the saddles they are selling. Personally, I can fit a particular type of saddle over and over again and still not really understand its fit considerations very well without seeing the tree it is built on and how it looks compared to other trees.

This doesn’t really mean that every time a fitter puts a saddle on a horse, he or she has to have a bare tree to use as a guide; but it can be immensely helpful to the process of understanding the fit considerations of a particular saddle and what kind of horse it will work well for. It also allows the fitter to dig much deeper for answers to why a saddle that looks like a decent fit by external assessment might not be working well for a particular horse.

Why don’t saddle makers encourage their sales force of fitters to work from bare trees? A cynic (not yours truly, of course) might conclude that it is because they want the customer to buy THEIR saddle, not someone else’s saddle built on a different shape of tree.

Not all saddle manufacturers– in fact, not many — build saddles on a full range of different tree shapes. And they do have very valid commercial reasons for this.

I have a hefty collection of trees that I have bought one at a time from the various saddle makers I work with. They cost about $100 a piece, give or take, and are a bargain at the price, considering that understanding the trees in the saddles we fit can help prevent some very expensive errors.

Thanks for your response- it is not quite as encouraging as I would have liked, but it does answer the question. I guess I just hope you are the leader of a saddle fitting revolution for happier horses everywhere. ^_^
Sadly the fitters I have talked to have all just mentioned bringing saddles to try, but I feel I have no way of knowing whether a particular one would be good for my horse or not- and I wish that she could “try on” some trees with nothing to obfuscate them.

I’ve had these same thoughts - I know my mare needs a non-standard shape tree - if only I knew what it was I needed! With a wide barrel and shoulders to match, she has prominent withers, and NOTHING off the rack so far has come close to fitting her. I second the notion that placing a bare tree on the horse would be so helpful. LOVE the blog - keep those posts going!!