# Dissecting an English Saddle!



## Oxer (Jul 9, 2010)

I'd be interested to see the tree as well. I had a lovely Equitation Beval saddle that was a flat seat. However, it was probably from the 80's and soon enough it had a busted tree. I gave the saddle away to a friend of mine whom was determined to get the tree fixed and keep the saddle. 
I'm subbing!


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## LikeaTB (May 28, 2012)

Woohoo! Finished taking apart the saddle! Take about a lot of nails!I'll try to post the pics in a little bit


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## LikeaTB (May 28, 2012)

*Lots of pictures!*

Getting the pics up  I'll post about 4 or 5 at a time


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## LikeaTB (May 28, 2012)

Oh, the picture of the nails- the big nail was one that took me a while to dig out- it was the one right next to the stirrup bar.


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## Oxer (Jul 9, 2010)

poor decrepit saddle!!


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## chubbypony (Dec 18, 2012)

This reminds me of anatomy class but instead of a frog its a saddle. Are you guys going to replace the tree??


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## LikeaTB (May 28, 2012)

chubbypony said:


> This reminds me of anatomy class but instead of a frog its a saddle. Are you guys going to replace the tree??



It was a fun project! Nah, we're not replacing it; its not worth it. The leather was in bad shape anyway, I ended up tearing a lot of it because I couldn't get the nails out XP It was just a sorry saddle overall. After dissecting it, I saw that the crack was all the way through and ran from the fron't of the saddle to the stirrup bar area. The only things still holding it together was the foam on the seat.


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## Saddlebag (Jan 17, 2011)

That's interesting that it had a horizontal crack. Was there any king of treatment on the tree or just bare wood? I've dismantled a few, a low end and a high end. The high end had endured about 50 years of a lot of jumping. No idea what the low end was exposed to. The differences in the two saddles was night and day. When one sees the lack of quality in the hardware and the tree it's scarey to think that people buy these to jump in. Unless an english saddle is dismantled one really doesn't know what's under the seat. I look at the stirrup bars. If they rust, I'll pass on it.


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## LikeaTB (May 28, 2012)

Saddlebag said:


> That's interesting that it had a horizontal crack. Was there any king of treatment on the tree or just bare wood? I've dismantled a few, a low end and a high end. The high end had endured about 50 years of a lot of jumping. No idea what the low end was exposed to. The differences in the two saddles was night and day. When one sees the lack of quality in the hardware and the tree it's scarey to think that people buy these to jump in. Unless an english saddle is dismantled one really doesn't know what's under the seat. I look at the stirrup bars. If they rust, I'll pass on it.


I think it was a fiberglass tree but I'm not sure, all I know is that it is +20 years old and sitting in storage for at least 12 years.


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## LikeaTB (May 28, 2012)

These are some pictures of the crack


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## Cacowgirl (Feb 19, 2011)

That was interesting. Thanks for all the pics. Hope you didn't have much invested in the saddle.


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## LikeaTB (May 28, 2012)

I actually got the saddle for free-it was my cousins and it was in the storage room at my dad's office so I took it  I have more pics coming!


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## apachiedragon (Apr 19, 2008)

This is really a great thread. Thanks for posting


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## Chevaux (Jun 27, 2012)

Good info and good post, OP.


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## LikeaTB (May 28, 2012)

More pics!


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## LikeaTB (May 28, 2012)

The thing in the last picture row on the right: I discovered that as I was taking the saddle apart, it says 'flexible points'


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## LikeaTB (May 28, 2012)

Even more (yes I took a load of pictures!)


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## LikeaTB (May 28, 2012)

Here are even more (just a few more after these)


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## LikeaTB (May 28, 2012)

The rest


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## LikeaTB (May 28, 2012)

The top row right is a piece of the flocking. It came out in square-ish shaped pieces.


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## freia (Nov 3, 2011)

Have you found any actual evidence of "flexible points" in there?


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## LikeaTB (May 28, 2012)

freia said:


> Have you found any actual evidence of "flexible points" in there?


Honestly, I don't even know what flexible points are....XD


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## freia (Nov 3, 2011)

LikeaTB said:


> Honestly, I don't even know what flexible points are....XD


Flexible points are supposedly a feature that allows the tree-points to flex a bit, so if it's, say, a medium tree, the tree-points would "self-adjust" to a medium/narrow or medium/wide.

I've never believed it. Always figured it's a marketing gimmick. And if it's real, I always figured it would just flex/bounce/pinch with the rider's weight shifts and pitch the saddle one way or the other and create more problems than it would fix.

I've just never actually seen what these magical flexible tree-points would actually look like...

Can you get a close-up of the tree-points, taken from directly from the front? I wonder if there's some kind of joint or spring in there, or if it's just the tree material itself that's so soft that it just flexes (or breaks, as in your case).


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## LikeaTB (May 28, 2012)

freia said:


> Flexible points are supposedly a feature that allows the tree-points to flex a bit, so if it's, say, a medium tree, the tree-points would "self-adjust" to a medium/narrow or medium/wide.
> 
> I've never believed it. Always figured it's a marketing gimmick. And if it's real, I always figured it would just flex/bounce/pinch with the rider's weight shifts and pitch the saddle one way or the other and create more problems than it would fix.
> 
> ...


It does sound like a gimmick...

I'll try to take some pictures some time this week. Is it the front of the saddle where the tree points are?


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## freia (Nov 3, 2011)

Yes, the points are at the very front. They're what determine how wide your tree is.

http://www.trumbullmtn.com/wp-content/uploads/SADDLETREE.jpg


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## LikeaTB (May 28, 2012)

freia said:


> Yes, the points are at the very front. They're what determine how wide your tree is.
> 
> http://www.trumbullmtn.com/wp-content/uploads/SADDLETREE.jpg


I haven't taken pictures of the points, but I just pushed on them to see if they flex at all, and they do not.


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## freia (Nov 3, 2011)

LikeaTB said:


> I haven't taken pictures of the points, but I just pushed on them to see if they flex at all, and they do not.


Aha! That's what I thought. A gimmick.


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