Stubben Tree Adjustment

[one1horse]

I have a 27cm Stubben Portos which was custom made for a horse I no longer have. I am “horseless” at the moment, and riding a handful of different horses at my trainer’s barn, none of whom fit my saddle. I love the saddle, and would also love to find a way to adjust it so it is a more versatile fit for the wider backed warmbloods I am riding now. I value and appreciate having my own tack, so if I can find a way to make my saddle work for me, I would like to try. I know the Stubben repair center in VA can widen the tree, and I’m curious if anyone has ever had this done and what the experience was like? Would you recommend doing it to try and hold on to my saddle, or was your saddle never quite the same afterwards?

I’ve gone back and forth on just selling my saddle and getting something else, but i really love the one I have, and I “know” what I have in it, if that makes sense. My budget even after selling the Portos would only bring me to the used market, and that brings its own host of pros/cons and let’s face it, stress and inconvenience.

Anyway, any thoughts and experience would be very appreciated! Happy to provide more details about the saddle itself if that would be helpful too.

[JackStewart48]

Hi, I run the repair center at Stubben so if it did come in I would be the one to do the adjustment on your saddle. I can’t really offer any advise as to if a tree adjustment is best for you/the horses you ride but I can give you some facts that may help you decide:

1. The tree can only be adjusted one time in the saddles lifetime, and only up to 2 cm. So it can be made a 28 or 29cm tree size PERMANENTLY. If you want a wider size, I can replace the entire tree with one build in any of the 7 tree sizes, however this is more expensive.
2. There is no other place in the us to have the tree adjusted (no matter what you hear). The Stubben tree machine is made in the Stubben factory and there is one in the US which lives on my workbench. Due to Stubbens headplate shape, typical tree machines will break/deform the headplate.

That’s the important stuff and if you have any questions about the process/shipping cost/timeframe, my email is repairs@stubbensaddles.com, and direct phone number is 434-373-7030. I am happy to help - but for anyone else reading I only run the repair center and cannot help with saddle fitting questions, customer service questions, or product questions - I just do saddle/tack repairs, saddle rebuilds, and custom leather work.

• Jack Stewart

[Demerara_Stables]

I love this forum.

I have no experience with widening trees, but could you maybe find another (used) Portos in a wider tree and sell yours? I have a County that was made for my mare and then I started riding other horses a lot. My mare’s saddle fit most of them really well but the wool was needing more frequent adjustment to fit my horse. I decided to buy an additional, used, county of the same model and tree size (had to settle for a seat that was 1/2"larger). I got an incredible deal at Highline Tack - they have a great selection and the saddle was in excellent shape, as advertised (no tree issues and cosmetically looked fantastic).

[Posting_Trot]

Similar to what Demerara_Stables suggested, I think that, if you can afford it, I’d hold onto this saddle as is and try to buy a used Stubben for riding the horses in your lessons.

I’m saying this because I think that the 27 is one of the narrower widths of Stubbens and I wonder how much more versatile your post-adjustment saddle, at a 28 or 29, would be for most warmbloods. If you’re planning at some point in the future to buy your own horse, I’d probably leave the current saddle un-adjusted until then.