Trees in jumping saddles - carbon fiber vs wood?

[Blueeyedroan]

What do you prefer, carbon fiber trees or the good old fashioned laminated beechwood ?
Which one do you think is stronger and has better durability ?
Any opinion on brand specific trees ?

I have trouble with broken trees / cracked head plates and it’s never something I want to deal with again. Since I’m in the market for a new saddle I’ve been leaning towards maybe getting a carbon fiber.

I’ve had several County (wood, spring tree)saddle trees/head plates bust on me and seen it happen to others personally. I will NEVER own one of their products again. Garbage.

I’ve had a couple of the classic CWD saddles (SE02’s). Not sure what they had for trees but I never had an issue , and they were old well used ones that I beat up on green horses. Really like CWDS.

Had one Antares (wood tree) that I cracked the (steel) head plate on. BUT I got jumped out of the tack and landed on the pommel hard - heard it happen.
This saddle also happened to be SO OLD there wasn’t a serial number to be found on it , or a stamp , or anything. Thing was aincent! Just had the brand left on the buttons.
But the fit for multiple horses , comfort , and balance of this saddle was so nice I had a new head plate put in by a saddler and used it for several more years. I’ve heard of Antares having weak trees but I don’t know if that’s just an old rumour ?

And worth a mention …. Wintecs. I have put a few old jump Wintecs through the ringer. They’ve been bucked off , dropped , slammed into solid wall round pens, fallen on , rolled on, flipped on …. You name it .
Never even developed a creak, or an imbalance - nothing.
Whatever the heck Wintec did with their old school trees …… if I could find that inside a high end saddle I’d buy it !
Absolutely indestructible.

Thoughts and experiences?

[fivestrideline]

I’ve heard the County thing. And school saddle Pessoas, Wintecs, and Stubbens were dropped/scratched/generally abused and held up GREAT. My own CWD was ancient and also still going strong.

One thing with carbon fiber trees is they can’t usually be adjusted, even within brands that have adjustable by a fitter options. Personally if I’m buying a custom saddle I like some flexibility in the fit, even outside flocking. But that’s just my 2 cents.

[PNWjumper]

I’ve had the opposite experience.

I have 6 or 7 Counties and have only ever had one tree issue. And that was on a saddle that a horse fully flipped over a jump with me in (she rolled over her head and “landed” on her back/the saddle). Had that tree replaced and it’s been fine since (it’s now 30ish years old).

Bought a 2GS CWD 4 or 5 years ago and absolutely loved it. It has been, in fact, my most favorite saddle ever in terms of fitting my horses and me. Until one day it started squeaking. I suspected a broken tree of some sort (though nothing had ever happened to the saddle), but they were between saddle fitters near me, so I ended up having to send it to FL. They confirmed a broken tree and sent the saddle back to me with a new tree.

All was great for another 6 months and then one day the saddle just started tilting to one side and then slipping back terribly (most notably on a horse it had been a perfect fit on for years - and no, she had not changed shape). No squeaking and no signs of a broken tree. This time I had a saddle fitter come out and she said “nothing wrong with it, the tree is not broken, just try shimming one side.” So I did and that did seem to correct the tilt. But the saddle still slides back like crazy on every horse I put it on. I don’t have the bandwidth to keep sending it out to Florida for 3 months at a time. So ended up buying a Meyer saddle and using one of my Counties and have one horse I use the CWD on.

So color me unimpressed with the carbon fiber trees. In the meantime, I have heard a whole lot of stories about them breaking on people. They feel to me like something that is made as part of a saddle that’s not supposed to last more than a few years. And don’t even get me started on the sales model of “pay twice the amount for the saddle so that we can give free saddles to every trainer on the planet.” I would buy a new CWD in a heartbeat if they were even semi-reasonably price. But absolutely not when I have to make up the difference for all of the free ones my trainer friends are getting.

[IPEsq]

Coming from the land of carbon fiber bicycles before I got a carbon fiber saddle tree, the material is strong if the carbon fiber sheets are laid right. It’s also made to flex in some directions. The material can fail under the right conditions (weather, storage, riding, handling) or with poor manufacturing. So can steel, aluminum, titanium, etc.

I now have 3 saddles with carbon trees (one CWD from 2015 and two Equipes, one of which is very new). I’ve also got spring tree saddles including an ancient Luc Childeric. A rivet on my CWD came apart within the first month but after that was fixed, it’s been fine.