i am looking for a saddle for my horse and without getting into a ton of detail, i found a western saddle online for sale and the ad says its in great shape and has a floating tree.. i have nevr heard of a floating tree before.. i have heard of saddles without trees, but not floating. anyone else?
Probably one of the "flex" trees? http://www.horsesaddleshop.com/flex-trees-101.html A quote from a person in my area that repairs saddles: That is good info on flex saddles. Over the last few years I have had several saddles with ralide trees in for repairs, (new sheepskins etc)when taking off the skirts I have found the tree cracked or broken on all of them. Most were broke where nails or screws were put in to hold the skirts on and made a line crack in the bar. The ralide tree would seem OK for trail riding, but I prefer the traditional wood and rawhide tree. It is interesting that none of the owners knew they had a broken tree, and it was not noticeable looking at the saddles. No one reported any problems with their horses backs that i recall.
hmm ok, so i guess i just need to figure out what kind of flex tree it has? im curious about it because i have a horse i was using a semi-qh saddle on, and it was too small. im trying to find a saddle with full qh bars because that should work, but i came accross this "floating tree" and i was thinking maybe a flex tree would be the way to go so i have better luck with it fitting him. im not expert on fitting saddles, especially western saddles. theres no one around here to come out to look at it, and my horse is in the process of putting weight on so the fit may change afterwhile anyhow..
I use a Bob Marshall "treeless" saddle that is flexible. I do endurance riding and my horse's back changes seasonally and even during competition and it is easier than having several different saddles and/or pads.
