Some good reasons to order a hand made tree
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.)
Rod and I got brainstorming about why someone should pay the extra dollars to get one of our trees rather than just buy an "off the shelf" model from a production company. What benefit does the saddle maker get from using one of our trees? We came up with quite the list, under two main categories:
A.) Better quality tree
1.) Quality of materials
2.) Quality of workmanship
3.) Overall look and shape of the tree improves the overall look of your saddle
4.) Better fit for horse due to larger surface area and more variables available
5.) Time saved and ease in building
B.) Relationship with the tree maker
6.) You deal directly with the tree maker
7.) Solid customer support
8.) Special requests are honored
9.) Detailed record keeping
10.) Education
I started to try to explain all these in one post, but that got rather silly. So I thought I would do a series, explaining one or more points in each post till I get through them all. I'll link them all here so you can find them all once I get them all up.