I have a friend (who rides in an Antares, and is VERY pro-Antares, lol) who continually makes the statement that “all French saddles are built on the same tree!” I am neither a proponent or a naysayer of any French brand; I am in favor of what works for you and your horse. However, this statement drives me nuts! I have tried using Google to figure out where the trees are made but it hasn’t got me anywhere. The variety of saddles from French manufactures makes it impossible for me to believe that it is true (and I’m not just considering close-contact vs. dressage tree, for example.)
So, collective saddle wisdom of COTH, what say you? Is there one giant tree manufacturer somewhere in Europe that produces all the trees for CWD, Antares, Devoucoux, and Voltaire? Any saddle reps care to chime in? It really makes no difference to any one but I would love to know! TIA.
I know Equipe has several different trees themselves that they build their saddles on.
I don’t have any sort of definitive answer, but when I was saddle hunting for my flat backed but high withered horse, I found that all of the french brands seemed to be built on a curvy tree. Much to my disappointment, none of them worked for my horse as I found comfie/ lovely from my perspective. I tried CWD, Antares, Childeric, and Devoucoux. The saddle I was replacing had been a Butet.
I don’t think they all have the exact same tree though, because they did have options, just none of them had an option that had the right shape for my horse.
Your Friend Is wrong. I have a PJ and they have more than one kind of material they use for their trees.
Antares and Devoucoux are TRUE french saddles and their trees come from the same manufacturer. Although CWD and Voltaire are french-owned companies, their saddles are not made in France therefore I am not sure where their trees come from (rumor has it Voltaire is moving to France). Devoucoux is now owned by CWD so I am not sure if they are keeping their old factory in Biarittz. Antares has the largest number of tree, panel and flap configurations on the market. But yes, I have been told as well - by very reliable sources -
that none of these four brands make their own trees. Not sure about Butet.
Do any of these saddles have warrantees on their trees, and if so, for how long?
[QUOTE=Jump4FT;7666564]
Antares and Devoucoux are TRUE french saddles and their trees come from the same manufacturer. Although CWD and Voltaire are french-owned companies, their saddles are not made in France therefore I am not sure where their trees come from (rumor has it Voltaire is moving to France). Devoucoux is now owned by CWD so I am not sure if they are keeping their old factory in Biarittz. Antares has the largest number of tree, panel and flap configurations on the market. But yes, I have been told as well - by very reliable sources -
that none of these four brands make their own trees. Not sure about Butet.[/QUOTE]
My CWD shipped to me from France.
If the saddle is not stamped “Made in France”, it is not made in France. It is possible after the saddles are made in Morocco they are forwarded to France and then shipped to customers from France. Simply stamped “France” is not the same thing as “Made in France,”
That said, there are conflicting stories about the manufacturing location of the 2G, but all the other models are made at the CWD factory in Morocco.
That’s correct: all of the CWD saddles are made in Marocco but shipped to France prior shipping to US.
Our Hermes are made in France. With Hermes, you can find out which employees actually made each saddle. The records used to be kept in a big journal/book. Don’t know if they are kept in a computer now or not. So buying a French saddle is assured if you buy the Hermes. Ditto the bridles.
[QUOTE=Jump4FT;7666564]
(rumor has it Voltaire is moving to France).[/QUOTE]
They are moving to France from Morocca? As I understand it, Morocco is to French saddle manufacturers what Argentina is to Pessoa.
I suspect that there are relatively few trees available onto which French saddle makers put the rest of their saddles. That’s true if their industry is like Britain’s. I know there are people who design saddle trees and innovate, perhaps working with a tree-manufacturer to create a design for them. But I think the more common practice is to buy trees from one of a handful of tree-making firms.
Now in Western World, you really can have someone make the whole saddle—from the skeleton, to the flesh, to the pretty “body art” on top. And IIRC, the only person in the states who does that complete process in English World is Paul Selvey/Superior Saddlery in Southern California. Or rather, he might not make the trees, but when you buy a custom saddle from him, he puts the naked tree on your horse first.
I have never had a saddle made that way, but that first move— matching saddle skeleton to horse skeleton-- is the way I’d want to do it if were buying or selling an expensive saddle guaranteeing good fit.
Back to how things are done currently and French World. By and large, the french trees are more banana shaped than British trees. And that may come from a combination of tradition (plus things like the particular patents given to one manufacturer or another) and the manufacturing being concentrated in one or a few factories.
Hmm. Kind of takes the mystique out of the whole French saddle thing. (Not that they aren’t beautiful, comfy saddles.) But who’s going to sashay around saying, “MY saddle was made in MOROCCO!” 
[QUOTE=M. Owen;7619794]
I don’t have any sort of definitive answer, but when I was saddle hunting for my flat backed but high withered horse, I found that all of the french brands seemed to be built on a curvy tree. Much to my disappointment, none of them worked for my horse as I found comfie/ lovely from my perspective. I tried CWD, Antares, Childeric, and Devoucoux. The saddle I was replacing had been a Butet.
I don’t think they all have the exact same tree though, because they did have options, just none of them had an option that had the right shape for my horse.[/QUOTE]
I have a horse with similar conformation and am wondering what saddle you ended up with.
Do you think Jump4FT was telling us some thing ?
Four years ago? I guess you can check if this rumor came true?
