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Tree Construction Fenders Stuffed Panels Classic Saddles Awling Halter Bridle How To Why an Aussie Saddle? Mule Fitting Aussie Saddle & Draft Horse Soft-Gated Horse Whips Video

Tree  Construction

The tree is the heart of any saddle. What it is made of, and how it is shaped, determines how it feels for both rider and horse. Wood and Steel are two of the oldest ingredients used by saddle makers. Attila the Hun was the first to make a tree of wood around the year 340 and because of this ruled the world from the wall of China to the Danube. Medieval Knights introduced steel and thus the world's first wood/steel tree was born, around 1640.
For the rider, this tree offers unique comfort. Webbing pulled up in the gullet and across the seat forms a hammock, which mean the rider's rear bones never hit anything hard. They are in a sling! This fact also helps the horse because when a descending backside collides with an ascending saddle the energy of the impact is lateralized!
Wood/Steel offers unlimited possibilities in fitting the horse. The gullet can be easily spread in a press or narrowed with a come-along. (Only experts Please!)
For many complex and various reasons they are also easy on the horse for the horse to wear. They give slightly to accommodate back movement.
These trees are also relatively easy to repair. 

• No Guesswork Saddle Fitting

• Wither Tracing

Fenders

Fenders for hundreds of years have been standard on western-style saddles. An English-style high boot is not necessary for leg protection. Traditional western fenders are hung over the "rail" of the tree. This means they have to be unbuckled and unthreaded to be removed from the saddle. An important safety feature of Australian saddlery is that fenders - or any other system of carrying a stirrup - is suspended from a hook. This is called a stirrup suspension bar. The design means there is an excellent chance the fender will pull off the hook should the rider get caught in a "drag".

• The Patrol Poley has stirrup suspension bars system.
• The Combo Poley and the Darwin Poley both have over-the-rail suspension.
• All fenders used in the fleece-lined saddles have Blevin - style buckles.

Stuffed Panels

Saddle makers have been stuffing panels for centuries. Originally, doe hair was used but as that became difficult to obtain, hair from more commonly slaughtered animals grew popular. Today stuffing materials include a range of acrylics. There are pluses and minuses to using natural fibers versus man-made fibers.
The plus side of natural hair is that it is cool on the horse's back. In the saddle, the hair acts much as it did when it was on the back of a living animal. Each piece of animal hair liberates a small amount of heat, which is why sheep can be cool in scorching heat! For the same reason, people living in Middle Eastern deserts wear wool to protect themselves from the sun! Another plus to animal hair is that it conforms more quickly to the shape of the horse - the basic reason stuffing is used in the first place. The down side of natural hair is that it requires maintenance - fairly regular "AWLING" to make sure it does not pack down hard. Because once it does pack rock-hard, it must be replaced. The upside of acrylic flocking is that it does not pack as quickly (but it, too, if left unattended will pack like concrete). It requires less awling. Another plus: acrylic is lighter than animal hair, thus reducing the overall weight of the saddle. The down side of acrylic flocking is that instead of LIBERATING heat, it acts as a barrier to heat. Which is why, in the building trade, it is commonly used in various forms for insulation. Another plus, as far as saddle manufacturers are concerned, is it costs much less than natural hair, and is more readily available.
Stuffing also comforts to the rider, who is actually sitting  on two pillows under the saddle.

Classic Saddles

This term in the Australian Stock Saddle Co. means the saddle has been design by us and manufactured at our direction in India. All Classics must meet our exact specifications. Our Classics are backed with the Australian Stock Saddle Co. guarantee. (Many other Indian Saddles on today's market are our REJECTS!

• Our key Indian saddlers have been trained in the U.S. by us to ensure quality control.
• The leather used in the Classics ranges from buffalo hide tanned to European standards - to genuine Australian steer hide.
• All fittings are solid brass.

Awling

Awling should be done to balance the saddle, or to simply prevent the stuffing from going hard. If for example, the saddle drops down in the front (common from aggressive riding, where the rider is taking a lot of stirrup weight) the stuffing should be awled forward, to lift up the front, and thus return the saddle to its original balance. If it goes down at the back (very unusual) stuffing can likewise be awled back to lift that section. Stuffing can also be moved to make the saddle fit better. If the saddle is "bridging - meaning a palm can be slipped up under the center when it is on the horse's back - then stuffing must be awled into that low area to fill the gap. But awling is more like fine-tuning. It cannot correct a hopelessly fitting tree.
If you do not have access to a proper saddler's awl, then make one from a thin-shank Phillips head screwdriver. Grind it down until it has a smooth extremely sharp point. Use fine-grain paper to finish the job. A common garden weeder makes a reasonable stuffing rod.

For Precise instructions and technique on the art of Awling contact us. Expert information free.

Questions on the Halter Bridle

Now to answer your technical question: why the second strap on the halter bridle, set back four inches behind the ears. Several reasons:

It gives more strength to the ring to which you attached a snap that is at the end of a lead line that is, most commonly, attached to the horse's neck in, say, a "mounty's knot". If you had just one strap going over the poll, along with a throat latch that has very little strength, the unit is not as secure. ALTHOUGH, a determined horse will certainly break my halter bridle in a pull-back, as he will break ANY leather halter bridle -- or even a sturdy regular leather halter. Which is why very expensive horses are pastured ONLY with leather halters. Nylon halters that do not break can cause great injury in a pull-back. Such an incident crippled a fine horse I used to steeplechase. Got spooked by a truck backfire. Never raced again. Now can barely walk. 

But perhaps the most important reason for the second strap is that ....you have your horse tied to a tree via the lead line, with bit and reins removed, and you're having lunch, and he decides to scratch his sweaty head on the tree . Halter bridles that go over only the poll will rub off easily . And that is you walking home. In the bush, that stroll could be 50 long miles! Not something you would be doing while also whistling. When he rubs his head with our Australian halter bridle, the second strap catches behind his ears, and the whole head piece stays in place.

Why an Aussie Saddle?

If you are a great rider, an Australian stock saddle will improve your form even more! If you work and break horses professionally, this will speed up your program - plus offer you the safety EVERYBODY needs with new horses. It is the careless professional who ignores a chance to work more safely! If you are a beginner rider - or somebody getting back into the sport after years of not riding - the Australian stock saddle will give you the confidence you need. People learn best and quickest when they are ENJOYING something. They learn the least when they are afraid.
If you ride trails, then the Australian stock saddle is the piece of equipment most suited to that activity. In fact, it is the ONLY saddle ever designed in the world whose primary function is to keep the rider in the saddle. Western saddles were designed to rope off of. English saddles were designed for dressage, and for clearing fences. In the bush, Australian stockmen don't rope cattle (too slow!! too dangerous!!) and they certainly don't jump fences that have perfectly functioning gates! What they do is ride hard and fast on some of the roughest country on the planet, trying to turn cattle that often have never SEEN a man. They're wild. It simply never occurs to an Outback stockman to tie one of THEM to their saddle. They gather them with WHIPS. (Ask Colin about WHIPS - HE'S AN EXPERT!!).
Increasingly, riding in the Australian bush is starting to compare with riding in the hills of other civilized countries where urban sprawl has gobbled up all the flat land.
Consider: Trail riders have changed. They've grown older - old enough to have the money it takes to keep a horse, yet still healthy enough to enjoy them. Terrain has changed. Urban development has gobbled up all the flat lands, sending the pleasure rider into the hills.
Pleasure riding has changed. In the hills, you're no longer alone. You share the trails with screaming cross-country bikes and hikers flashing brilliant slickers as you traverse cliffs. And riders cresting the peak of their earning curve have more time to spare, so they're riding longer. While adventurous, they sensibly look towards minimizing personal risk. No surprise, then, that the Australian Stock Saddle has rocketed in popularity. It's a piece of equipment that is actually hard to fall out of; a saddle ladies can lift and horses can wear for long hours.
To survive on the trails, that skirt cities today you need to be well-horsed, well -schooled - and mounted for security.
Heavier than an English saddle, but lighter than a Western roping saddle, the Aussie saddle rides on trails better than either.

Mule Fitting

We fit that saddle to mules a lot! We do not deal with "gullet measurements", because it is not accurate enough. For example: where exactly do you measure the gullet. Three inches down, four inches down, or five inches down? And what if the points of the tree go down seven inches? We deal only with the ANGLE of the gullet, and make sure this angle is the same as the angle of the animal's withers. Then we deal with LEVEL of saddle. That is the most accurate way to place a saddle or a horse, a mule a donkey, a zebra; whatever. I have now fit over 86,000 animals, a great number of them mules, and I have yet to find the animal I could not fit. Mules are actually very, very easy. Send us wither tracings and I will tell you what would be the best saddle to work with.

Cheers, Colin D.

Aussie Saddles on Draft Horses

Whips

Australians make the best whips in the world because, quite frankly, they're the last whip culture.
Siberian horsemen are said to have used shot-loaded whips to stun wolves. That was a long time ago. Florida stockmen used whips; thus the nickname, "Florida cracker". But the number of people who use whips in America to work cattle is minute compared to the number using other means.
In Australia, MOST stockman working cattle carry a whip. They see no point in the alternative: making weird noises, yelling, or jumping up and down in your saddle waving a hat.
One crack from a whip will move your biggest bull from here to there in about the same time it takes for an echo to die in the timber.
Whips are awesome, especially in the hands of an expert. They are never used to actually strike cattle.
The very finest of Australian whips are made from kangaroo hide, which is woven around a tapered leather core. Good braids are tight and even, in strands that start with multiples of eight and go all the way to 32! Good whips move like snakes, rolling easily, carrying their curl at ever-increasing speed right to the end of the popper, where an explosion is caused by the sudden release of energy. The whip at that point is travelling at some 1.200 feet per second!

Interestingly, Australians call their whips "stock whips" not because they are used to work cattle, but because of the 18" stock, or handle, which becomes an extension of the human arm to deliver greatly increased leverage.
The whip was the first man-made object to go through the sound barrier.

Video $29.95

COLIN DANGAARD is no stranger to video. He once had his own talk show on cable television. So it is no accident he has put together a video that is both informative and entertaining. KATHY KADASH, Associate Editor of WESTERN HORSEMAN, writes: "Dangaard's delivery is good and so is the sound and picture quality. He doesn't endorse any one kind of Australian saddle, and the film is not commercial in nature. It's a good, educational film and just the ticket for anyone contemplating buying a 'down under' variety of saddle."