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[RC] A few more comments on western-style saddles - rides2farMy most > popular saddles is the $285 Big Horns Roughout line of western cordura saddles. Here in Chattanooga there are several large saddle companies (Big Horn, Crates, American) and LOTS of small operations. Crates is known as the Cadillac...they don't even talk to the locals. Big Horn will let you peak at the operation and it's obvious they use all quality materials. American is a little friendlier, but you find things like a cinch that's got a thin piece in the leather, or a saddle that's cut out the wrong direction on the grain of the hide so that it tends to curl, things like that. I'm glad to hear Big Horn is offering different trees now. I tried to talk to a guy about them doing that years ago and he just laughed at me. He said "We ship more of these to Germany than we can produce, why should we change anything?" I've never ridden their cordura but knew someone who got one when they first came out and when she got rained on hard the fender wadded up like a dishrag. Did they come up with a cure for that? Today I was picking up a horse a friend bought and the man asked me if I might be interested in his endurance saddle. I walked around to look at it. Talk about a piece of crap! The leather felt like cardboard, very light but with a brittle feel. The pommel was endurance type with no horn, but the rest of the pattern was from a *big* roping or pleasure type saddle...square skirts, front & back girth, etc. It was sooo cheaply made it was pathetic, and since he bought it at a local feed store he probably paid WAY too much. I'd rather have a very old quality saddle than a brand new shoddy one. Oh yeah, and as to using nails to put one together? I had the billets pop out of an Argentine English saddle as I was coming out of the starting gates on a training track when I was 17. The horse got up to full speed before the saddle slipped and the horse dragged me one good stride then the other billet gave and I tumbled down the track, landed on a metal stirrup and ended up getting 8 stiches and a scar only my gyno has seen. :-P When we picked up the billets they had been nailed in with one nail each! Angie ________________________________________________________________ The best thing to hit the internet in years - Juno SpeedBand! Surf the web up to FIVE TIMES FASTER! Only $14.95/ month - visit www.juno.com to sign up today! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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