Our video, Western Saddle Fit - The Basics, is available either on DVD or streaming on Vimeo!! We have all our blog post relating to how saddles work on horses on our website at www.westernsaddlefit.com.
Mysterious Barricades Concert
Posted by RodandDenise on September 5, 2016
I know this isn't about horses, or saddles, or trees - but suicide has touched our lives personally a number of times. The barricades that stop us talking about mental health need to be broken so that hope can come to suffering people. This first time event consists of eighteen hours of incredible music from thirteen professional concerts across the country, all volunteered, with the goal of bringing awareness to mental health and suicide prevention. The concerts are free, and it is being live streamed from a link on the website for the full duration of the concert. Some of the artists normally command thousands of dollars per performance, but all the musicians and almost everything about this event is being volunteered by people who see the need to open up communication and remove the stigma about suicide and the mental health issues that so often lead to it. Information about mental health and suicide prevention will be available at all the venues and people will be present to talk with as well. Please go to the website to learn more, share the links, live stream the music or, if you are close to the venues, go to the concerts themselves. It will be a day of hope and education. Please join it!
If you want to know more about the background to the concert, here is a link to a short video where the president of this organization, Elizabeth Turnbull, talks about the concert and her late husband.
The effect of the rider - Part two
Posted by RodandDenise on August 28, 2016
Our video, Western Saddle Fit - The Basics, is available either on DVD or streaming on Vimeo!! We have all our blog posts relating to how saddles work on horses organized on our website at www.westernsaddlefit.com.
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
has been built…
Semi-retirement
Posted by RodandDenise on August 3, 2016
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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
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
Our video, Western Saddle Fit - The Basics, is available either on DVD or streaming on Vimeo!! We have all our blog posts relating to how saddles work on horses organized on our website at www.westernsaddlefit.com.
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…
Introducing Harry Mari
Posted by RodandDenise on July 19, 2016
Harry is the first person we trained who was serious about building saddle trees for custom saddle makers. He took our course in September 2014 and, after a few hassles in getting the shop up and running (he lives in California, so maybe that explains a few things…) he is now open and taking orders for trees.
11:10 am
Posted by RodandDenise on July 12, 2016
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…
Getting to The Lasts...
Posted by RodandDenise on July 4, 2016
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.
Myth Busting - Cranial Nerve 11 and Saddle Fit
Posted by RodandDenise on June 3, 2016
Our video, Western Saddle Fit - The Basics, is available either on DVD or streaming on Vimeo!! We have all our blog posts relating to how saddles work on horses organized on our website at www.westernsaddlefit.com.
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…
