Saddle Fitting: Consider the humble saddle tree

Monday, September 22nd, 2008 | saddle fitting | 2 Comments

“A round man cannot be expected to fit in a square hole right away. He must have time to modify his shape.” - Mark Twain

More about trees

Wood spring trees are made by bending laminated wood strips around a form that looks like a horse’s back.  The wood spring tree takes on the shape of the form it is built on.  The shape is then re-inforced by steel bands and a head plate and gullet plate.

There are many other factors beside nominal tree width that affect the fit. Even a tree of suitable shape cannot do the job alone. No matter how much you narrow this tree, something more will be needed to prevent injury to this horse.

Synthetic trees are injection molded, using a plastic-like, nylon composite material.  The material for the tree is poured into a mold and it comes out in one solid piece.  Then its width at the head is established by pushing the points of the tree outward or inward.

In the manufacture of synthetic trees — which dominate in the lower half of the saddle market and are becoming increasingly prevalent even in the rarefied top end — the initial investment in a mold to produce a tree is expensive, but the production cost per tree is low.  This is one of several potent disincentives to producing saddles on many different shapes of tree for many different shapes of horse. › Continue reading

Tags: saddle fitting, saddle shape, saddle trees, synthetic trees, wood spring trees