Competitive Riders

From Bob

I've been building saddles for 36 years now and I was a farrier for 10 years before that. I have learned many things about customers, horses and mules in both of my professions. One thing I have learned is that building saddles for competitive riders can be more problematic than building for pleasure riders, ranchers, working cowboys or what have you. Anytime you're building a saddle for someone that is riding in a timed event, you run a larger risk of having a problem with the saddle or the customer. It seems to be more likely that if a customer riding in one of these events, doesn't do well, they have a tendency to want to blame someone or something for not doing well. This could include the saddle maker, farrier or their equine veterinarian.

Where I only use 58 Wade Trees for my custom saddles, I have eliminated most everyone that rides in Rodeos so that leaves things like sorting and penning and maybe endurance riding. Staying away from competitive riders has served me well over the past 46 years.

I had a woman by the name of Robin Morris from Columbus,MT contact me about having me build her one of my Close Contact Saddles for her mule. That all sounded fine to me so we set a date to meet up so I could personally fit her mule. Before the date came around to meet to fit trees on her mule, she started telling me what she had accomplished with him and I started to worry just a bit.

Robin is a VERY competitive person when it comes to her riding and taking care of her best friend, Beau. She is 63 years old, about 120 pounds and just tougher than rawhide. A foot of snow, a temperature of 10 degrees with a 15 mph wind is just great riding weather for her, so as you would expect, she rides a lot by herself. She loves clearing trail, fishing, and looking for shed horns in the late Winter, early Spring. This is where the story starts to get dicey, or anyway it did for me.

Robin bought Beau June 16th, 2014 and before the year was up she put 848 miles on her mule riding in the backcountry. I know from personal experience that this is a lot of riding in 6 months because I have been there and done that myself. All of these miles are documented GPS miles and not a guess. I would venture a guess that 90% of the horses in the US aren't ridden that far in 4-5 years. She was riding a custom saddle that was about 90% wore out, giving her sores and aches; starting to cause Beau some problems also. It wasn't the best-made saddle I have ever seen but looked to be fairly well made considering the shape it was in. Well, the story just continued to get worse for me. Robin was very outspoken about what she wants and how she wanted her new saddle to be made. As a Custom Saddle Maker, you have to be careful of doing strange things on it because you never know where this saddle will end up... and it has your name on it. Robin only asked for one thing that was a bit different and I fully understood why she wanted it this way, so I went along with it.

Well to finish the story, Robin rode 2,188 miles in 2015, 2,302 miles in 2016, 2,062 miles in 2017, 2,314 miles in 2018, 2,573 miles in 2019. So that is 5 years of riding over 2,000 documented miles per year. I rode over 2,000 miles for three years when I was in my mid 20's and let me tell you, that is a long way to straddle a horse or mule.  The Top Trail Horse, a nationwide membership-based group that requires members to upload all of our GPS tracks, awarded Beau and Robin who have finished on top for the past 4 years. 

I was starting to worry about what Robin thought about her new saddle because I hadn't heard from her in three weeks after she got it and we ended up writing each other on the same day. You can read her email to me about her thoughts and what Beau thought also. I just thought my followers might enjoy reading about one tough lady. As always if you like this story please like and share this post. This is Bob from Bitterroot Saddle Co. Corvallis MT.

From Robin (testimonial):

Bob, I figured it was time to let you know what I think about the saddle. Being one that doesn’t fall in love at first glance, I wanted to take my time and experience in the saddle before professing my love, or lack thereof. After 10 rides and 150 miles, I feel it is time to share my thoughts. I love it! For me, it took time to adjust – after all, I logged over 11,000 miles in my last saddle. I have long suspected that my right leg is longer than my left leg. I can’t estimate how many times I have taken a tape measure to my stirrups and legs (that’s impossible to measure) to validate my theory. On my 8th ride…I figured I have nothing to lose, hopped off and adjusted my left stirrup up one notch and rode for 20 miles. Wow – what a difference. Beau also took some time getting used to the saddle. I always check his back, before and after a ride. His retired saddle would sometimes leave him a little sensitive to the touch in his loin area. Especially a stiff grooming. I noticed after the 7th ride, that sensitivity was going away. I decided to take to the county roads and get his “trot” on. The next 2 days we logged 41+ miles (total) and averaged over 5 mph. I was able to sit the trot for over 80% of the ride – loved it, and he trotted along with no hesitancy – making for a very enjoyable ride. When I got the saddle, I switched the latigo to the rear “D” for a few rides, then switched it back to the front. I also switched to my Mohair stranded cinch with the Weaver “Smart Cinch” rings. It’s working really well. The reason I switched was to more easily accommodate my fencing plier scabbard that attaches best to the off-side rear D. The saddle is starting to show some wear – as a saddle should. I would welcome your thoughts on how best to keep it supple and clean. Thank you for sharing your craft and incorporating components that I have found to work. I anticipate riding this saddle for the rest of my life. I feel fortunate to own (and use) one of your amazing saddles. Again, thank you Bob.

-Sincerely, Robin & Beau 

Well, it's another day, but almost quitting time. It seems that is the only time that I can find the time to write. I've had some really nice comments about my writing style and how much they enjoy my Facebook and blog posts, but if I was to really tell the truth, I have gotten so much more out of this than you have. I've had a pretty interesting life and learned a lot from some really interesting people, men and women and I would really like to share some of my stories with you before I'm gone. I think it has to do with that 15 Seconds of Fame that everyone wants before they're gone. Well, let's get back to mule saddles and see if we can help some poor soul from wasting their hard earned money on a saddle that has a small chance of working out for them and their mule.

There are 5 parts to a saddle tree, Horn, Fork, Cantle, Bars and the Rawhide. For this story, we are only interested in one of them, the Bars. These are the two parts that rest on your mules back and trust me, it's the only part that your mule cares about. One of the major problems you face as a potential buyer of your new dream saddle for your mule is that there is almost zero standardization from one Tree Maker to the next. They can do anything that they want and they do. For example, I've seen 58 Wade tree's that weren't even close to the tree I use. Also, I had a chance to see first-hand the difference between Bar designs. I was fitting a real nice built horse a few years back and I had a 58 Wade with PW Bars and it fit the horse 100%. The guy that owned the horse said how come this tree fit's my horse and the tree I ordered with the same specs doesn't seem to fit at all. He went to his truck and got a bare tree out of his truck and showed me the order form and it was the exact specs as the one I had. I put it on his horse and he was right, it probably was about a 70-75% fit, bad enough that he would of sored his horse if he rode him very much.

He was a big man, about 6ft 3” and probably weighed 230 pounds. So if this is the case and it is, how are you supposed to buy a saddle for you Mule that will work for him and you. Now I will tell you something that will really confuse you. I probably have made 75 saddles for mules over the past 35 years and guess what, probably 50 of them I have got a 100% fit with HORSE BARS!!!! When I personally go and fit a mule I always take several horse tree's with different bars and a tree with mule bars to see which bar will get me the closest to a good fit. When I find the Bar that comes the closest to fitting the mule, then I take notes on how I want my Tree Maker to modify the bars so I can get that 100% fit that is so important.

Most Tree Makers will let you change some things like gullet width and height and bar flair, but they don't have the ability to change the rock or twist in a bar like my Tree Maker does. It's still risky for me if all I have to work off of is the 3 pictures that I have customers send me of their animals back but I have done it many times and so far I've never had a problem. It's the only thing I can do if the mule or horse is in a state as far as New York.

I will tell you one last story before I close. There is a real good Mule Trainer in Western Montana where I live. He use to travel all over the world doing clinics and he developed a mule tree that he would sell to his customers so they could have the Saddle Maker of their choice make them a saddle. To make a long story shorter, I ended up with one of his trees from a lady Mule Trainer in Idaho. One of my customers that I had made 3 mule saddles for used her to train all of his mules before he started riding them. Well, she saw the saddles that I had made for him and she asked him to bring the tree over to me to have a saddle made on it. When he brought the tree by the shop, I looked it over and two things caught my eye. One, the rawhide stitching on the tree in several places had split apart so it just wasn't worth building a new saddle on, so I let her know. We decided to go ahead with a new tree and build her a new saddle.

I really wanted this to be a success so I decided to drive to Idaho where the trainer lived. I had 2 other mules to fit on the same trip so I had them haul their mules to the trainer’s place. I took care of fitting the 2 outside mules first and then started with the 3 mules that the trainer had. They were all about 950 pound Mules and all of them were between 8 to 12 years old. I took a look and went to my truck and grabbed a tree that I thought might come pretty close to fitting them. I always take 2- 5 Star Pads of different thickness with me when I fit animals. Two of the mules I managed to get a 100% fit and they needed to use a 7/8th thick Pad, the other mule was a bit more A-framed, but I could still get 100% fit on him with a 1 inch thick pad. Well to end this part of the story, I fit all 5 Mules with the same PW Horse Bars with 2 different gullet widths and 2 different pad thickness. I must of hit a home run on the first two mules because I never heard a word from them and you will if they have problems.

I called the trainer after about 2 years because I hadn't heard anything from her. She told me that I really nailed it, it was her favorite saddle and she had really put a lot of miles on the saddle and never had a sore mule. After we were through fitting the trainer’s mules and the other people had left, I got the old tree that she had sent over to me and we tried it on her mules. I try to teach customers what I'm looking for in tree fit when I'm fitting their animals. I have a saying " I can teach a 3rd grader in 5 minutes whether a tree fits a horse or mule". She put the old tree that was furnished to her to have a saddle made on and she said to me, "this doesn't fit very good at all” and it didn't. Probably got about an 80% fit on her 3 Mules. She could of gotten by with it because she only weighed about 125 pounds. My thought is why put up with 80% when you and your mule deserve a 100% fit.

I don't know how to write a story like this without sounding like your the best, please believe me when I say that is not the case at all. There are Makers out their that are much better than I ever was or will be. I guess the point that I have been trying to get across to you folks is that you want to find a maker that understand mules and that tree fit is just as important to him as it should be to you. I guarantee your mule will agree with me on this matter.

If you enjoyed this story at all, look for more on my website or Facebook page; you can get to my Blog Post from both of them. As always, this is Bob from Bitterroot Saddle Co. in Corvallis Montana.

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Photo courtesy of Robin Morris and Beau the Mule. She has been awarded several awards on the National Level for riding the most documented miles on her mule.

Well, after seeing that the tree in the saddle I was using on Coffee wasn't fitting the way I really wanted it to, I decided to make some changes to it. It was a full cover saddle with skirts, so I decided to just build the tree up with leather instead of making a whole different saddle with a new tree. It was a little harder because the seat was in place and I couldn't see down between the bars like you could with a bare tree, but I knew where to apply the leather to make it work for him.

I scratched up the bottom of the bars and started gluing leather where they weren't in contact with Coffee's back. What I was trying to do was have 100% bar contact except for the stirrup leather slots. So when I had a little more leather than I needed glued to the bottom of the bars, I started skiving the leather so it all flowed together like a normal bar would if it fit his back properly. It took a bit of time, but I finally got it just the way I wanted it, so I put the saddle back together.

I went out the next morning caught Coffee and saddled him up. The trail head for Mill Creek was about 3 miles from the house, so I thought I would just ride him up there and back and I could see how he acted with a 6 mile ride under his belt. I grabbed a stirrup, stepped up on him and headed out the driveway to get on the gravel road that would take me to the Trail Head. I only went about a 100 yards and I knew that something was really different with him; without me even asking, he broke into a slow trot. He trotted up the road for about 3/4 of a mile until I hit a 1/2 mile stretch of asphalt and I slowed him to a walk, I hate riding on asphalt.

Coffee was always a good mover, but I couldn't believe what was going on, I mean this guy was really moving out at a walk. We got off of the pavement and headed up the gravel road to the trail head. It was a bit steeper than part of the road we had just ridden, but you could tell he was really putting everything he had into it. When we got to the trail head, he didn't miss a beat...he just headed up the trail. Just a week before, I had helped to pack lumber up the canyon 9 miles to rebuild a Forest Service bridge so he knew the trail well. I wasn't planning on being gone very long, but I did have my handgun and a vest on so I thought, what the hell, I will just let him go a ways. We went up the trail about 5 miles and came to a nice meadow with lots of grass so I pulled him in, unsaddled him and put his hobbles on so he could eat. That was a real treat for my stock because our 5 acres consists of trees without grass, they were on hay all year long. He had never stopped once since I left home that morning.

After about 45 minutes I caught him up, saddled him and stepped aboard. He stood there looking up and down the trail toward home. I gave him a little leg to see which way he would head and, by God, he headed up the trail again, I stopped him, made a turn and headed down the trail. I just couldn't believe what he was doing and how he was acting. The trail was somewhat steep in places and I mean he was really picking them up and putting them down, way to fast to pull a string of loaded mules off of. My first thought was that what I did to his saddle couldn't make this much difference, but I didn't have any other explanation for the change in his traveling speed and his go-getter attitude. It took a bit, but then I noticed that he hadn't wiggled his skin once on the whole ride. Well, it wasn't just a one time thing; he was so much better to ride from then on and you could tell that he was much more comfortable.

We rode together for several more years and then I pulled a stunt that he just wouldn't forgive me for doing what I did. That's another story that I'm sure not proud of, but it all ended up ok. The part three of this story will really bring home the fact that if you are going to buy a saddle for your saddle mule you had better start with someone that understands mules and how their minds work and will do whatever it takes to make them comfortable.

Well, it's time to call it a day, as always this is Bob from Bitterroot Saddle Co. in Corvallis MT.

Over the past 35 years, I have been asked that question quite a few times. Back in the beginning, I just said “I sure do” and we went from there. After building 100's of saddles and quite a few saddles for mules including one for my personal saddle mule, I have a much different answer for people then I did back in the day. I have much more knowledge about saddle tree fit than I did 35 years ago and… Coffee, my saddle mule, probably opened the door and my mind to a totally different way of looking at what I always tried to do, but was pretty much clueless on how to get the job done. Really, mules are nothing but a horse with long ears and a somewhat different brain when it comes to processing things. Now when people ask me if I make Mule Saddles, I politely explain to them that there really isn't such a thing. There are only saddles that fit properly on the animal you are making the custom saddle for. Just because a saddle has a Crupper Dee or Britchen Dee's or Mule Bars on it doesn't make it a mule saddle.

So when I see maker ads, websites or go to a mule show and makers are saying that they make mule saddles, the first thing that comes to mind is that this person doesn't have a clue and I know that he is going to only hit a home run about 30% of the time. Mules are like horses, they all have different builds. I build saddles for horses that have mule backs and for mules that have horse’s backs. So for the customers sake, I really hate to see them get sucked into something that has less than a 50% chance of working out for them and their mule.

Back to Coffee, my saddle mule. I bought him from a Guy that raised mules and some good Quarter Horses. He was a mid-sized John Mule about 7 years old. He was gentle, good minded and solid as a rock to ride in the backcountry. He loved to do what I call 4-wheeling; he just loved to go cross country, I never found anything he wouldn't do if I asked him to do it including jumping off a 5 ft. high cliff into a bog that was about 8 ft. wide and pretty deep. I had been through it years before when I was guiding in the Bob Marshal Wilderness on a good horse so I knew it could be done. I never would of ask him to do it but, I was in kind of a bad situation so we went for it. It was almost dark and no way around it without backtracking for quite a few miles. We rode up to the edge and I let him look it over, then I just gave him a little leg pressure, he just started to gather his legs up and we were airborne. When we landed he was up to about a foot above his belly in fairly thick mud. He never even moved for about 5 seconds and then just started walking or swimming through the mud towards the other side, got to solid ground shook the mud off and was ready to head for camp. 

The guy I was with was on a horse and managed to get it done, but let me tell you it wasn't pretty!!! The only thing that Coffee did was he was always wiggling his skin like they do when a big fly lands on their backs. I didn't think to much about it for about a year, I check my stock every time I pull their saddles to see if he was sore anyplace and never was. I had a tree in the shop that was the same as what I was riding him in, so I grabbed it one day and walked out to the pasture and called him, he would always come right to me. Another reason that I figured that the saddle wasn't a problem for him. Well I put it on his back and squared him up with his head in a normal riding position and started to look it over. It didn't fit him like I hoped it would but it wasn't too bad. I would say that it fit him about 80-85% which means in good saddle makers terms, that with a good pad I could ride him 15-20 miles a day for 4-5 days in a row and probably not make him sore.

Well as usual, the way I write and tell stories it always takes me longer to finish a story than I think it will. I will start the second half tomorrow and if you mule riders have had your interests perked, then stay tuned for the second half because there will be some interesting info. in it.

-For now this is Bob from Bitterroot Saddle Co in Corvallis MT.   

Well what do you say about finishing this story so we can move on to a different topic, hopefully one that isn't so long. I think I have covered a lot of the problems that the average rider can avoid if he just pays attention to what his or her gut is telling them. How much money a person has to spend on this project can have quite a bit to do with the end results. Let's talk about a Full Covered saddle like our Buckaroo Rig at a base price, not including the cost of stamping, carving, silver or any accessories. I have about $1700.00 in material cost in a base price saddle. So if you think your going to get a good rig for $2,800.00, just do the math and use your common since. This means that the maker is going to clear $1100.00 off of your saddle. I hate to be the bearer of bad news but you can't keep the doors open unless your using the cheapest leather, hardware and trees that you can find and using 100% of the leather including the ears, tongue and arm pits in your new rig plus anything even close to being classified as good craftsmanship is damn well good enough. What this tells you is that the maker is going to slam through your saddle so he can get on to the next hack job in order to keep the lights and heat on. Is there a flip side to this? Yes there is, there are a few makers out there that are fast and good at what they’re doing and can produce 3 pretty good rigs in a month, but I'm sure not one of them. If I didn't have my disability pension from Vietnam there is no way that I could support myself by building saddles even at my prices.

I'm in the process of designing a 4th saddle and it will be the last one for sure. I have spent enough time on this blasted thing that I could of made two of my normal saddles that I make in the same amount of time and I'm only about half done.

OK, let's cover one last thing and then call it quits. How much money should you be required to put down on a saddle to place your order???? It depends on several things, but most importantly is how much does the tree cost that the maker is using. You’re going to have to put that much down to get on his schule board. So I ask for $500.00 down, then when there saddle comes up and is ready to start, I might ask for another $1000.00 to cover materials. The rest is due plus shipping when the saddle is done. It's pretty tough to work 3-4 weeks on a saddle and you have already spent all of the money. I think that most saddle makers and customers are honest folks and have no intentions of cheating anyone but S--- Happens… how would you feel if the maker was injured or died and you had $4,000.00 down on your rig? I apprenticed with a guy that got as much money down as he could get and then sometimes the folks never got a saddle in return. Doesn't happen very often but it can happen.

Well I hope I gave you some info. that will be helpful if you are looking for a Custom Maker, I'm sure you will do fine if you just listen to your gut and use your common sense. I promise that my next post will be much shorter but there was a lot of things to mention on this one. As always, this is Bob from BitterrootSaddleCo.Com       

Well, I guess I have you to the point in this project that you have narrowed your search down to, let's say four Saddle Makers. Remember the things that I have mentioned; 

1.) You have picked a maker that will build you your dream saddle on the style of tree that you want

2.) A saddle that compliments itself with flowing lines, enhanced with contoured texture and oil conduced color. Every person has different tastes in everything we buy, some folks like Fords, some like GMC, but regardless of what model you prefer it needs to be put together properly or it just ain’t going to last or work very well for you. READ THE TEXT!! I You probably wouldn't buy from someone that didn't tell you something about himself and the saddles that he builds. You can tell alot about a person from what comes out of his mouth, either in writing or spoken words. You want to learn as much as you can about this person if you’re going to spend $4,000. to $8,000. on one of his saddles.

Let's think about several other things to ponder before we call. Does the maker have horses or mules? How long has he been building saddles? How old does this person appear to be from pictures on his website. Remember what I said about Common Sense, we all have it, we just have to remember to use it as much as we can to keep us from making mistakes.

Let me barge in and tell you some things that customers have said to me over the years and they make since if you think about it. #1 Many customers have told me that they had no doubt that I made a good saddle because my home and property are well built and neat, #2 they have told me that they have never been in a shop as neat and clean as mine, #3 I can instill confidence in a potential customer because I can talk the talk as long as I don't stray outside of my field of knowledge that I have gathered over the last 50 years of being in the horse and mule business. All I have done other than flying Helicopters in Nam Is pulling a string of Mules in different Wilderness out West or being underneath mules and horses; trimming and shoeing or building saddles and equipment for the past 35 years. So, you can be as dumb as a post and you will have learned something I would think.

Here are a few more of MY THOUGHTS…
Does a maker have to have 8-10-12 years of experience to build you a  great saddle, absolutely not, I've met makers that have been building 3-4 years and I would buy one of their rigs. Some people are just good with their hands, have talent at whatever they build, so you don't need to have been building for 35 years to be a great maker. On the other hand, can you just be too old and have been at it too long to still be producing good work, absolutely. I'm 72 and I'm tired, not tired of building saddles for nice people but just tired, so every chance I get to ask someone I really trust if my work is starting to show my age I do. The second I see my work starting to go down hill I'm going to call it quits.

I have several other pointers that I would like to give you before you pick up the phone and start calling saddle makers, but this OLD DOG is tired so I'm going to hang it up for the day. I think I can finish this story in one more post, so if you haven't given up, watch for it in 5 days or so. As always this is Bob from Bitterroot Saddle Co.       

So now that we have made the distinction between artwork and what I call "using gear", lets move on to... how do you find a saddle on-line that you will actually get what you paid for. The most important thing I guess is a saddle that fits your horse so he can perform to the best of his ability. We have a saying on our website that says  " A better fit means better performance ". If you have ever tried to take a long hike in boots that don't fit you would soon realize what a horse is going through on a 20 mile ride. While he can't talk to you about his discomfort, his only choices are to just suffer the pain or buck you off and go back to the trailer on his own.

With my 35 years of building saddles, I would think that I would have a fair chance of buying a saddle from a maker and not get screwed and get what I paid for. As far as I know, I have never lost an order in 35 years because I don't flower carve, I only do geometric stamping. I guess you have to ask yourself, in your eyes what makes a saddle attractive to look at. Is it the style of the tree, the flowing lines of the saddle, the finished color of the saddle or just what it is that makes you like this particular saddle. I guess this is where I would start, I would bring up every Saddle Maker that has a web site that I could find and study the pictures and READ the text that he has written. After you have scoured the internet and talked to friends that have ordered online and you feel like you have really put some effort into finding several makers that you feel is worth your time to call and talk to in person. There are several sayings that have been around for years and they still apply today, 

1, You get what you pay for and 

2, if you see a man or woman that is a full time saddle-maker, making using gear and not art work then you're looking at a person who has a partner that has a good paying job!! To cut to the chase, there is very little or no money in making saddles. You say to yourself, with what they cost a maker has to be making money. There are a few makers that have the one talent that can allow them to make some money and that is SPEED. There are a few guys out their that can keep their quality up and use good materials on good trees and design a saddle that will fit your horse and make you comfortable and still produce a lot of equipment. It's the only way that it can be done. More to come in part three if your still interested. As before this is Bob at Bitterroot Saddle Co.   

Well it's been a long time since my last post. It's funny, I really enjoy telling stories and talking about saddles and giving people my thoughts on different things that relate to horses and their equipment. No, I haven't been sick or out of the country or I haven't retired, somehow I just woke up one morning and I had gotten OLD. I seems like I went to bed being 45 and woke up the next morning and I was 72. I guess what really happened was I got so busy and as I got older I got slower and I ended up working 7 days a week for the last 10-12 years trying to get caught up. Did it work, NO, I'm just about as far behind now as I was 12 years ago. Well enough about my problems, let's talk about old saddle makers and your new saddle.

I always like to start out by telling folks that read my posts that these are just my opinions and I truly believe in what I say but I had an old Cowboy by the name of Fred Talbot tell me 50 years ago when we were pulling a string of mules into the Backcountry that if I was going to learn anything about this life style, horses and their equipment that I should politely listen to everything that someone had to say on the matter and after the conversation was over go through everything they had to say and throw out the things that I was sure were pure BS and to remember the things that might hold water. I've used that Idea my whole life and it has served me well. As a general rule nowadays people want to talk and have someone else do the listening. So there is no shortage of people to listen to and that is where you want to place this post. It is something to read through and pick out the things that might apply or work for you and discard the rest.

OK, there are all kinds of Saddle Makers out there, young, old and in between. There are some really bad ones some really good ones and of course some that fall in the middle. There are quite a few things to think about when your buying your next saddle that you hope will be the love of your life and you will ride it forever. A lot of folks don't have a custom saddle maker in their home town so they're relying on websites and Facebook Pages to find that dream saddle that will make their life complete. Probably 90% of my customers I never meet in person… so why is a person willing to spend $5,000. to $45,000 on a saddle from a someone that they have never met and probably never will. Yes, I said $45,000. Not many, but a few. These are forms of art and will probably never see the back of a horse, just propped up on a custom made saddle rack in an office or trophy home someplace. To me, custom made saddles are only worth it’s weight in gold when it’s put on your horse’s back. What are your thoughts? Bob Bitterroot Saddle Co.