We are no longer building saddle trees, but we have two videos about how Western saddles fit horses available on our westernsaddlefit.com website.

When we started the business over twenty years ago, Rod built his workbench and the table. He built them the same height as each other so they would match, and the height chosen was the height of the table on the band saw. This way he could use either table or bench to support the end of a long board that hung a long way out past the band saw when cutting.

We are no longer building saddle trees, but we have two videos about how Western saddles fit horses available on our westernsaddlefit.com website.

In part one about rider effects on the horse, we talked about the effect of movement - horse and rider - on how the rider impacts the horse. (Pun completely unintended.) But how about rider position? What have studies shown about that?

We are no longer building saddle trees, but we have two videos about how Western saddles fit horses available on our westernsaddlefit.com website.

has been built…

We are no longer building saddle trees, but we have two videos about how Western saddles fit horses available on our westernsaddlefit.com website.

Well, Rod rawhided his last tree on July 23rd. Now not only is the orders-in-waiting clip empty, but the working-on-orders clips are all empty as well.

We are no longer building saddle trees, but we have two videos about how Western saddles fit horses available on our westernsaddlefit.com website.

Dusty came to visit us in February to learn to build saddle trees. We knew he was high energy when he wanted to get here so much that he made the plane arrive early and was standing on the edge of the curb waiting for us when we drove up with what should have been lots of time to spare…

We are no longer building saddle trees, but we have two videos about how Western saddles fit horses available on our westernsaddlefit.com website.

Daring to walk into a lion’s den here… When discussing “big picture saddle fit”, we have to look at more than just the tree and the saddle. There are other factors that affect the pressures on the horse. (We give a run down on these on our Troubleshooting Saddle Fit page.) One of the main ones that can be touchy to discuss is the effect of the rider. But here goes…

We are no longer building saddle trees, but we have two videos about how Western saddles fit horses available on our westernsaddlefit.com website.

Around about 11:10 am today things in the shop looked pretty much like they may have looked any time in the last quite-a-few years. Rod was rawhiding a tree…

We are no longer building saddle trees, but we have two videos about how Western saddles fit horses available on our westernsaddlefit.com website.

Like we said last November, this has been a long winter of goodbyes, as one by one we have made The Last tree for individual customers, some of whom we have been supplying trees to for twenty years. But now we are getting down to the final few trees, and we are hitting some of The Last times we are doing certain parts of the job.

We are no longer building saddle trees, but we have two videos about how Western saddles fit horses available on our westernsaddlefit.com website.

The Story

I saw it again this last week. Another website/video talking about Cranial Nerve 11 and how important it is regarding saddle fit. The story is that there is a triangle behind the shoulder blade, in the center of which is Cranial Nerve 11, also called the Accessory Nerve. If you put pressure on that nerve, there is a “reflexive action” which causes the horse to “become agitated… twitch, pin their ears,” and which makes the horse stop and hollow through the back and the croup, preventing them from going forward. So, how much of this is true? Not much, actually. Let’s look at real anatomy and physiology and try to sort out truth from fiction…