We are no longer building saddle trees, but we have two videos about how Western saddles fit horses available on our westernsaddlefit.com website.
An Academic Study on Dennis Lane’s Equine Back Profiling System
Posted by RodandDenise on December 12, 2016
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 2007, the Australian tree and saddle maker Dennis Lane first showed paper copies of his Equine Back Profiling System to a few saddle makers, including Jeremiah Watt who posted about it on a blog he wrote for the Western Folklife Center (now no longer available, unfortunately). Over the next couple of years, Dennis, with the help of his friend, saddle and tree maker as well as engineer David A. Morris, worked on getting the system into an easily usable, easily transportable, easily saleable format – the plastic cards which you have seen on our website before. (If you are not familiar with Dennis’s system, I suggest you go to his website and click the EBPS link so you know what we are talking about here -and order a set!) Here are the three musketeers from when they came way up north to visit us on their 2008 trip over the ocean – from left to right, Hank Statham, Dennis Lane and David A Morris.
Introducing Greg Cymbaluk
Posted by RodandDenise on December 5, 2016
We are no longer building saddle trees. We have two saddle fit videos available on our westernsaddlefit.com website. Western Saddle Fit - The Basics, aimed at riders, is available either on DVD or streaming on Vimeo while the six hour series Well Beyond the Basics, aimed more for professionals but understandable by anyone, is available by streaming on Vimeo. (We left this website up because we have had many requests to keep the information available.)
Last January, Greg made the long trek four miles down Alder Ridge Road to take our tree making course. We have known Greg since Rod first took him out hunting when he was twelve, and we have enjoyed watching him grow and learn in many ways over the years.
The downhill horse
Posted by RodandDenise on October 29, 2016
We are no longer building saddle trees, but we have two videos about how Western saddles fit horses available on our westernsaddlefit.com website.
I’ve had a couple discussions in the past week about how to deal with downhill horses. (Yes, despite life changing, we still talk a lot about saddles, trees and horses.) Lost in the archives, in the middle of the section on evaluating a horse for fit, I talked about how we decide if a horse is downhill or not.
The Table
Posted by RodandDenise on September 18, 2016
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.
The effect of the rider - Part two
Posted by RodandDenise on August 28, 2016
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?
The last tree
Posted by RodandDenise on August 20, 2016
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…
Semi-retirement
Posted by RodandDenise on August 3, 2016
We are no longer building saddle trees, but we have two videos about how Western saddles fit horses available on our westernsaddlefit.com website.
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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.
Introducing Dusty Smith
Posted by RodandDenise on July 27, 2016
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…
The effect of the rider - Part one
Posted by RodandDenise on July 23, 2016
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…
11:10 am
Posted by RodandDenise on July 12, 2016
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…
