SaDDLE
FITTIng
By HEATHEr SchLEcht
How many mes have you been looking through ads on Craigslist,
Facebook, Ranch World, Tack Trader or any number of other tack sale
sites and seen someone holding a measuring tape up to part of their
saddle I know I see it all the me. Too oen, the tape or ruler is held
in the wrong place leading to misinformaon on how that saddle will
t. On the purchasing side, there are too many people out there with
no knowledge of how a saddle is supposed to t and assume the
wrong informaon is correct which leads to poor saddle t, frustraon
and resale to ‘try again’.
When looking to t a saddle, there are many things to take into
consideraon. There is gullet t, bar angle, width and length. For
the less-knowledgeable horse person, these terms might as well be
a foreign language. There are ‘standard’ ts out there, but I know I
don’t have a standard ed horse on my place. For some claricaon,
I went to speak with Sco Holsne of Holsne Saddlery, currently
located in Deer Park, Washington. Sco has been building saddles
since 1981 when he was a senior in high school. He started learning
under Don Carter in Montana and spent some me with Jim Stone
of Stoney Saddlery. We spent me looking at a few trees he has in
the shop and made some comparisons in what, to the untrained
eye, appear to be virtually idencal ng saddles (right).
80 Rodeo LIFE