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

A while back we were asked to make a reproduction of a Pony Express saddle tree to be used in re-enactments. They wanted it as close to authentic as possible, but to fit today’s horses. The problem is, there are no original Pony Express saddles left anywhere, so nobody knows for sure exactly how they were made…

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

Carrying on from the last post, here are a few more of the variations of trees that have come out of our shop in the last couple of months.  This one is a 12” wide Norton pattern fork.

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

On January 14th, there was a major windstorm all through northern Alberta with record breaking winds of up to 120 km/hr (75 mph).  Now that may not be much to people in flatland country, but up here in the bush, we don’t get winds like that very often – as evidenced by the fact that they broke records…  Our yard is pretty sheltered normally, but we had some big branches come down in our front yard.

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 you are a tree maker.  I’m talking about the Friday morning “lets just go away for the weekend” kind of spontaneity that a lot of people take for granted.  No, when you are a saddle tree maker who rawhides his trees, it is kind of like owning a milk cow – you have to do your chores a couple times a day or you’re going to have problems…

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

Last week I posted this picture without an explanation of what type of fork this was. From the back, it may be hard to tell, though the horn could give it away.  So, for those of you who have been waiting expectantly (or not...) here's the answer!

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 month kind of disappeared, and I’m not sure quite where it went, but here are a few pictures of some things that happened during November, so it must have been here… In the background of the picture, taken from our dining room window, of this migrating bird, there is no snow, which can be unusual for November this far north. Unfortunately, the winter that was late in coming is currently making up its lost time in intensity. Good thing we have a warm house…

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

A while back I had an e-mail from Wendy Amaral, a board certified medical illustrator who has done some good drawings of equine anatomy.  We corresponded a bit and I was able to send her pictures of different views of some of the bones we have in our basement.  She used them when she was drawing her chart of the Equine Skeleton.  She had previously done drawings of the Superficial Musculature and the Deep Musculature of the horse.  If you go to her Portfolio Page, you can see links to others she has done of carpal and hock joints.  Today I just noticed that she now has posters for sale as well.  No, we aren't getting a kickback for mentioning this.  It is just kinda neat that we can meet someone in the world of the internet, maybe help them a little, and then pass on the results of their work to others who may appreciate it too.  So, for those who also find anatomy fascinating, here are more links to check out!

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

Since I haven’t posted a lot of pictures of trees lately, I figured I would just take a few of what has been around the shop this past couple of weeks.

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

A long time ago I wrote a post about the different things we have learned to do for dust control in the shop because we recognize that it is the dust that kills tree makers. The filters in our cyclone system are a lot larger than the filters in the dust mask Rod is wearing in this old picture. But anytime you use filters to clean your air, the filters get dirty. (Imagine that…) So we have to clean the filters. Rod did that job again this week.