I called Saddle House once about a used Martin they had for sale, and they had just sold it. I spoke to the owner and he proceeded to tell me how crappy Martin saddles were and I should just buy a Saddle House branded saddle. It was a total turn-off for me because as a sales professional myself I know the first rule of sales- never trash a competitor or their product because it only makes you look bad. I had also been riding in Martin’s for over 10 years at the time, and had never had an issue with one, and found the quality to be excellent.
There is a woman on Facebook, whose page is called Saddle Switch. She is located in TX, and buys and resells. The Facebook page has not been updated in a few weeks, but you could call her or message her to see what she has.
I actually just purchased a Martin High Plains All Around saddle this morning from Aiken Tack Exchange. They have a tab on their website where you can make an offer. I made an offer around bedtime last night, and had an e-mail from them in my in box this morning accepting. It was only $50 to ship the saddle. Best of all, with the rear girth attached, it only weighs 28lbs. It is in pretty good condition.
Yes, when it’s on the horse, and also the saddle sitting on the rack from the front view. You can see the “curve” from the front to the back. Something is real bad with it.
I have never personally ordered from them, nor used any of those saddle brands, so can’t comment. Based on their “new” price for their house saddle, seems more entry level.
Your pad thickness does need to be considered when you fit your saddle.
But it’s not about being “loose”. The bar angles, rock, twist, etc all needs to match your horse’s back. The tree needs to basically match the horse’s back so that there is even pressure all along the tree. If you have a gap, that’s going to create a bridge point, and have increased pressure on the bridge points. If you have a spot that is too tight, that’s going to create a pressure point.
Here are some pictures I saved from many years ago, when I was saddle shopping, and got the chance to try bare trees on my horse.
This tree has too narrow of the bar angle in front. You can see where it is literally going to gouge into my horse. He needs a wider/larger bar angle.
In this tree, the bar angle looks pretty good but now there is a big bridge in the center of the tree, where my horse’s back dips down but the tree does not. This is going to create pressure points in front and behind. He would need a tree with more rock in it to match the curves of his back.
With both of these trees, it doesn’t matter what pad I would put under it. The trees do not fit. And they are going to make him sore.
I personally use 1/2 inch pads made by 5 Star. My saddles fit my horses really well so I don’t need a lot of padding. If, perhaps, my saddle was a tad bit wide, then maybe I’d use a 3/4" pad. I not really a big fan of a lot of padding. I kinda feel like if you need to use a 1" pad to make up for your saddle fit, then your saddle might not fit as well as you think it does. But that’s just my opinion.
And sure, you could “overpad” and make an okay-fitting saddle a bad fit because you used too much padding and made it too tight. Yes, that could happen.
And 1" pads in maybe a lesser quality brand won’t be the same as a 1" in a good quality brand.
That’s a beautiful Martin. I love my 2008 Martin Sherri Cervi, but it is not working for my mare. I am having a hard time finding what I want used, but I can’t afford new.
Ugh, new prices are insane. I was shopping on a few different websites recently, and some non-show saddles were well over $6K. I was shocked, but I sometimes think it is because I am just getting old!
I felt like I was lucky to find this used one for a reasonable price!
Check out Trail Saddles by Steele (https://steelesaddle.com/ ). They will send a demo saddle for you to ride for a couple of weeks. If you decide to buy, you can customize however you want. You will have to send in pictures so that they can make a saddle that will fit both you and your horse (more info about this on their website). I love my Steele saddle. It’s the only saddle I’ve ever sat in that never, never, never hurts my knees. And it fits my horse perfectly.
Yes, Steele does have other trees for horses that are hard to fit. That’s why they need a picture before they send a demo. And they will send a mold kit for horses that need a custom fit. You put the mold in the oven to heat it, then place it on the horse’s back so that it will conform exactly to the shape of the back. Steele then makes a tree from the molding and builds a bare bones saddle with stirrup leathers, rigging, and a temporary seat for you to ride so they can check how it fits and make any adjustments before building the finished saddle.
Oh the way your fenders are set up are pretty neat! What do you call that? Semi-exposed leathers?
I have a bendy ruler. I have cardboard cut out in template sizes. I will be going to the consignment store this weekend to see what they have, and if anything will work.
A fork, Mc Call, lady Wade, those old type saddles with slick fronts were old model.
Later they found out adding swells to the tree made more sense.
Slick fork saddles came from the old military saddles, soldiers would put a rolled up thin blanket behind the front that acted as swells.
Today those saddles add bucking rolls, as those fronts are really not at all like the pommel in an English saddle, where you still sit in the saddle.
With the bigger fatter bars under a western saddle, those tend to put you up there as a bump on a log, why the rolled up blanket or bucking rolls were added.
You may not notice that so much when young and limber or long legged.
Short, older and stiffer, heavier, there is a real difference if you ride a slick front saddle for the first time, it takes some to get used to them.
Since people today don’t ride as long just traveling along, either kind works ok.
Once you are on an athletic horse performing some fast movements every which way, you do appreciate some swells built in directly in the saddle, to help keep you in there.
Second best add bucking rolls.
Most just get more modern saddles with swells, unless you are wanting to follow tradition, the old buckaroo look, then slick A fork saddles fit the part.
I admit that I like the look of the Wade “slick fork” style better. But seeing as how I’m getting a saddle that will hopefully better help me save my hide in tricky situations, I’m thinking a traditional swell might be better.
The “wood post Pendleton” seems to have the best of both worlds?
Since we seem to be getting some very knowledgeable people replying here, can anyone explain to me what the difference is between a “cutter” and a “ranch cutter”? (If there is one…)
Generally a ranch cutter with have a more stout horn/construction, so it can be roped off of. They may have a slightly deeper pocket/higher rise. Cutters used to be relatively flat in the seat so you have a bit of room to shift, but it seems the more recent builds have moved to a moderately higher rise.
No luck at the consignment shop. The angle of her shoulders/back fits better in fqhb than sqhb. The clearance for her wither will be a concern in fqhb though. Of course this is general because every saddle maker is different.
If there isn’t enough clearance for the withers, and the saddle is physically touching the withers, then something about the saddle is too wide and doesn’t fit. Maybe the bar angle is too wide, making it sit downhill. Maybe the gullet width is too wide, making it sit down in the front. Etc etc
It’s incorrect to think that all FQHB saddles will fit the same. There is way too much variation in western saddle trees. Unfortunately, you just have to try on the saddle to know if it fits or not. There’s no other way to do it.
I’ve been through a scenario TWICE with saddle fitting, where I had extremely similar saddles from the exact same saddle line, and saddle manufacture, but there was a small difference in the tree that made the saddle fit differently. Here’s one of them.
I ultimately sold this saddle for something that fit me better (it didn’t have a deep enough seat for me) but this was a saddle I bought for my horse. Fit pretty decent. Sits nice and level for the most part when cinched up.
But this was the saddle the tack shop sent me at first, because they had it in stock in my seat size. I called the guy and I told him, this doesn’t fit like the one I tried. He kinda lied to me but then I weaseled it out of him that there was indeed some differences in the TREE of this saddle, and that is why the back was popping up and was too wide for my horse. (Sadly, even someone you think reputable at a tack store, can just be trying to make a sale.)
Grey horse pictures above was pretty thickly built and had good withers and big shoulders. I ultimately ended up riding in a Circle Y Flex2 barrel saddle on him (Lisa Lockhart / Badlands / Sarah Rose). This particular saddle by design doesn’t have much wither clearance. It’s just how they sit. But it never touched, and it fit well, so I really don’t care how fingers of clearance there is or not. So long as everything else is right and it’s not touching. They say at least 2 fingers of clearance for a guideline but I honestly don’t know who made that up. So do not get hung up on that.
This picture is deceiving. It makes it look like there is a tight spot but there was not. (just brand new out of the box and not broken in) Just posting for an example of low wither clearance, but not touching. Again, that’s just kind of how this line of saddles sit. So kind of keep that in mind.
And fun fact, I tried buying a Kelly Kaminskin version of the Circle Y Flex2 barrel saddle, and that was my other example of an extremely similar saddle that does NOT fit the same. Her tree is a little different than the Lisa Lockhart. I bought a KK to have another saddle for my 3rd horse and I sent it back because it didn’t fit. Was wider and sat downhill and didn’t fit the same as the LL. I confirmed with Circle Y that the only difference was 3 degrees in the bar angle. That’s all it took to make it not fit.
Bar angle is as important as gullet width. I wish more companies would post this information in the specs for their saddles—it would make searching much easier. My mare has withers but needs about a 96-degree bar angle. My eye is not good for figuring that out from pictures.
Look at your saddle’s tooling in the corners.
Is it made for certain silver plates contours, like in the picture below?
If it is, as most are, when you take the silver plate off the leather below should be blank, no tooling.
You could have a saddler take the silver plates off and tool that fully and it will look fine.
Should not cost much and you can always add the silver plates over the tooled corners.
Also if the conchos are fancy, have them changed to plain round ones and add strings, that is what I did with mine, that had fancy diamond conchos and worked fine now as ranch saddle, but already didn’t have other silver on it, so easy to do, second picture:
