Saddle Up \u2013 A Lesson in Quality<\/b><\/p>\n
From the back of a horse, wars have been waged, fought and won.\u00a0 The horse has carried riders across vast, dangerous land just to deliver mail.\u00a0 And from atop the horse cowboys from the old west made their living and just plain survived.\u00a0 Yes, the horse is deeply etched into the history of America, much like the tooling on a finely made saddle.\u00a0 The very same saddles carried by horses throughout history as man first began to appreciate the softness of good leather, the utility of a sturdy horn, and the balance afforded by a solid set of stirrups.\u00a0 Today, horses have become more of a sport than a means to survival, but a quality saddle is still essential to a good ride.<\/p>\n
Quality vs. Quantity<\/b><\/p>\n
Not all leather is created equal, and there are parts of a cowhide that aren\u2019t suited for saddle making.\u00a0 The thickest part of the hide is along the animals back and at it\u2019s best, will be uniform and strong- perfect for high-wear parts of a saddle.\u00a0 When making a saddle, the emphasis should be on quality- using the best, thickest pieces of leather.\u00a0 Not quantity-using thin, easily wrinkled parts of the hide to churn out as many saddles as possible.\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n
Check Your Tree<\/b><\/p>\n
It\u2019s called a tree for a reason.\u00a0 Most quality saddles have a wooden tree covered by rawhide.\u00a0 A solid tree is the hallmark of a quality saddle-it ensures the correct fit to the horse, and the overall strength of the saddle as a whole. Foam trees and other synthetic options are not solid and should be over-looked when saddle shopping for any purpose.\u00a0 Certain events such as roping require a high quality tree to be successful and safe.\u00a0 A foam tree in a team roping event is highly dangerous to horse and rider.\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n
Quality-Worth it\u2019s Weight<\/b><\/p>\n
Quality weighs something.\u00a0 If the highest quality materials are used to make a saddle, that saddle will have some weight to it.\u00a0 Thick leather, solid wooden trees, sturdy riggings-they all have weight.\u00a0 Pick a saddle up before purchasing.\u00a0 If you can toss it on the back of a horse with a couple fingers, the quality is suspect.\u00a0 A heavier saddle may seem undesirable when you\u2019re trying to throw it on the back of a tall horse-but that weight means that saddle is put together well.\u00a0 That weight equals safety, durability and longevity.\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n
Signs of a Quality Saddle<\/b><\/p>\n
On a well-made saddle two layers of leather are used to make the skirt.\u00a0 Today, many manufacturers are scrimping on this angle by using pressed paper between the first layer of leather and the fleece.\u00a0 This means the D-ring is being held in place 50% by paper-not a good idea.\u00a0 A quality saddle will also have thick fleece on the underside, unlike many poorer made imitations, which are so thin you can see the paper through the fleece.\u00a0 Finally, a quality saddle will have good hardware.\u00a0 Hardware on low quality saddles is usually made of a low cost metal such as nickel, which rusts easily.<\/p>\n
Saddles have been around for hundreds of years and have evolved steadily during that time.\u00a0 But a few things haven\u2019t changed.\u00a0 A quality saddle will always be made of \u201creal\u201d material, not man made synthetic substitutes.\u00a0 A quality saddle will \u201cfeel\u201d good under your fingers as you adjust the stirrups and against your legs as you ride. A quality saddle will move and breathe and become a part of you and your horse.\u00a0 A quality saddle will give you a good ride.<\/p>\n
If you are looking for great quality, balanced with a great price, then look us up where we excel in creating the finest saddles without breaking the bank.<\/p>\n
\u00a0Copyright JCM Inc.<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Saddle Up \u2013 A Lesson in Quality From the back of a horse, wars have been waged, fought and won.\u00a0 The horse has carried riders across vast, dangerous land just to deliver mail.\u00a0 And from atop the horse cowboys from the old west made their living and just plain survived.\u00a0 Yes, the horse is deeply […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_thinkrank_schema_form_data":"","_thinkrank_selected_schema_type":"","_thinkrank_additional_schemas":"","_thinkrank_canonical_url":"","_thinkrank_og_title":"","_thinkrank_og_description":"","_thinkrank_og_image":"","_thinkrank_twitter_title":"","_thinkrank_twitter_description":"","_thinkrank_twitter_image":"","_thinkrank_imported_from":"","_thinkrank_focus_keywords":[],"_thinkrank_focus_keyword":"","_thinkrank_robots_meta_enabled":0,"_thinkrank_robots_meta":"","_thinkrank_advanced_robots_meta":"","_thinkrank_exclude_from_search":0,"_thinkrank_exclude_from_archives":0,"_thinkrank_primary_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"_xspeed_no_cache":false,"_xspeed_expiry_hours":0,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-4386","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jcmsaddle.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jcmsaddle.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jcmsaddle.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jcmsaddle.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jcmsaddle.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4386"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/jcmsaddle.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4386\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17498,"href":"https:\/\/jcmsaddle.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4386\/revisions\/17498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jcmsaddle.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}