Why do more people not get saddle tree changed to fit horse?

[Christmas Crumpet]

Just wondering about this as am about to send saddle off to have tree widened slightly for horse at a cost of about £200 max.

To me its a win win situation because I love my saddle and its cheaper to have the tree adjusted than buying a new secondhand one. It was bought brand new 2 years ago for another horse and I love it so it makes sense to me to have it adjusted.

Obviously its not an old saddle and the manufacturer is happy to do it - I can understand it might be a problem if it was old etc. I think you can only have it done once or twice.

So if you can get the tree changed to fit new horse why not do it and keep the saddle you are happy with instead of going through all the bother of finding a new one or secondhand one which will probably cost you more than just having the tree changed?

Just a thought!!!

 

[blue&whitesRock]

i dont think every saddle can have the trees changed, some very well known and expensive saddles can't have the trees changed and have been known to take the saddle, and either over flock it or remove practically all the flocking to "adjust it" rather than actually doing anything to the tree. some can though and i think its a good idea . i have a wow saddle and can change almost anything about it to suit my horse, was very usefull when i got my mare and she very different from my gelding, cost me £80 i think to have it adjusted and head plate changed, much better than buying a new one

 

[domane]

I just think there is not enough awareness that this is an option.

I bought a beautiful Black Country saddle recently off ebay for £17 because it had a broken tree. Prior to bidding, I contacted BC to ask whether they replaced their trees and was told they'd do it for £290, plus the cost of a fitter coming out to template my horse for the correctly-sized tree. I figured that was still better than spending £400 on a decent second-hand BC saddle that may or not have fitted him. As it was, it turned out to have been measured incorrectly and was too long for my lad (I bought it as an 18" and it was actually a huge 19"!!!) so it went off to a saddle-fitter friend of mine, who is a Saddle Co fitter. He had a shorter SC tree fitted so now the saddle is adjustable as well so it's a much more versatile. In fact, when he came to fit the saddle I went on to buy that WASN'T too long for my boy, he brought the BC one back to show me the job that had been done, showing me how the leather had been pleated around the top edges of the panels to enable them to reduce the size of the tree and a very nice job they'd done too

 

[Christmas Crumpet]

Domane - I agree with you that there is not enough awareness that this is an option. It makes a huge amount of sense to me to have it done if you can. I also imagine that a lot of saddle fitters want you to buy a saddle not have a current one adjusted because they aren't going to make much money if you send it off to be mended so are unlikely to give you the option. I am just glad my saddler told me this was possible. Did help that she sold saddle to me brand new in the first place though so she's def. had a fair amount of money off me already!!

 

[xxMozlarxx]

I have only just found out this is an option after many many years!

 

[Buds_mum]

It's an option for me with my boy, my saddler said he has a machine for widening it just the fraction it may need if he needs it (only four so still changing). I was worried this would weaken the tree but apparently not so with an option if changing the tree and the flocking if you have a good saddler then finding a good fit for you and your horse should be possible

 

[*hic*]

I arranged to do it recently. I bought a brand new £1400 saddle for £600 from ebay, had it reflocked to fit my big mare, decided that the three of us weren't a good combination and dithered about what to do with this very very nice saddle. Bought new horse, saddle was too wide, master saddler took a template, sent saddle and template off to manufacturer and it was going to cost around £300 to have a new narrower tree fitted. In the end they checked the template and the tree and decided there was an option to adjust the tree already in and reflock and that cost me just over £100.

 

[BigRed]

This is something I am thinking about now. I have an Albion that is 10 years old, and I am loathe to sell it, but it is a medium and I need a wide fitting for my current horse. The saddlers mentioned having it done.

 

[lara b]

This is something I am thinking about now. I have an Albion that is 10 years old, and I am loathe to sell it, but it is a medium and I need a wide fitting for my current horse. The saddlers mentioned having it done.

Not 100% sure but think you can only go up half a size with Albion ie. m to mw

 

[Broccoli]

Thank you so much for this post OP. I've just phoned Ideal and they offer this service, which I will definitely use in the future as my saddler has said I may need to adjust in future. They can also widen the tree.

 

[jeeve]

I buy all my saddles with adjustable gullets, Bates/ Wintec - am interested in WOW, balance and Heather Moffat saddles that are reasonably adjustable as well.

Did not know you can have the tree adjusted - suspect that you have more opportunity at a better price in the UK than we do here, just because of the size of your horse population and number of saddlers. But good to keep in mind.

 

[Skyebald]

Wish I'd thought about this when I was looking.

I bought a brand new Jeffries Adler VSD off ebay for £500... gorgeous but too narrow so I gave it to a saddler to sell on for me. I did get my money back on it but I would have much rather kept it

I now have a Saddle company saddle that has been altered to fit

 

[Goldenstar]

I have done this twice now but both times it was for the horse the saddle was fitted for and the horse had bulked up with work you would have to be sure the type of saddle suited your horse if the saddle was new to him .

 

[Sugar_and_Spice]

I know someone have a broken tree replaced by a saddler because it was cheaper than buying another 2nd hand saddle.

Also know someone have a tree adjusted by a saddler for 100 pounds. He said he could make it wider, but all he did was fit flexible points. Saddle seemed ok at first but 6mths later horse had back problems.

 

[sbloom]

Not 100% sure but think you can only go up half a size with Albion ie. m to mw

Albion may have this as their policy - the basic truth is that any beech laminate tree, spring or rigid, can in theory be adjusted a handful of times, and very roughly one size narrower (ie MW to M) and a couple of sizes wider as this puts less pressure on the tree. The metal headplate will obviously fatigue eventually so don't believe anyone that says you can keep adjusting the tree ad infinitum, it really should only be a few times.

In practice not every fitter believes that it is good practice to do this, that once a saddle has been built around a tree you shouldn't alter it. They will recommend a new saddle or re-treeing. The cynical might say that that earns them more money.

What you definitely shouldn't do is put anything other than the exact same tree back in a saddle, just a different width. A different length needs a totally different panel etc, though the flaps may still be able to be fitted to it. A different shape of tree is also a no-no.

Changeable headplates are all very well but the saddles won't fit everything.

I charge £50 for a tree adjustment and that is partly covering my time and partly insurance - as a fitter you have to develop great feel - every tree is handmade and responds differently when in the press so you need to know when to quit, some trees adjust much more easily than others. But ultimately they can be broken, and re-treeing is expensive.

 

[Christmas Crumpet]

SBloom - thank you for that info. I think I should be ok as saddle going back to man who made it and tree only needs widening a little bit. Fingers crossed!!