Make sure you get the saddle that fits your horse or mule!

Try the saddle tree on your horse prior to having a saddle built. Shipping a saddletree requires a $125.00 deposit plus shipping. The $125.00 deposit is applied to the purchase price of your Mountain Horse saddle.

Mountain Horse has a goal to not only sell you a saddle, but to make sure you are satisfied with your purchase. To achieve that goal, Mountain Horse offers you help with saddle fitting. 

For Mountain Horse brand saddles, you can choose to have the actual saddletree sent to you! You then put the saddletree on your horse, take pictures (instructions will be sent to you), e'mail the pictures to mtmountainhorse@yahoo.com and expert saddle fitters will evaluate the fit for you. From the pictures, the saddle fitter and saddle maker can tell what adjustments need to be made to ensure that your horse has the most comfortable fit.

Saddletrees available for fitting purposes:

6 ½" flex tree (semi QH). This saddletree flexes to about 6 ¾" when pressure is applied (rider in saddle).

7" flex tree (full QH). This saddletree flexes to about 7 ¼" when pressure is applied (rider in saddle).

6 ½" gaited wood tree* Good fit for not only gaited horses, but for horses with a narrow high wither, sway back or big dip behind the wither that aren't exceptionally broad otherwise. Usually a good fit for most Thoroughbreds

7" gaited wood tree* Good fit for MOST gaited horses and other breeds that have big shoulders or lots of shoulder action.*Gaited trees were specifically designed for the gaited horse breeds. Bars on these trees are flared outward at the shoulder and the gullet is taller so they do not pinch the shoulder and they aid the gaited horse in comfortably moving into their natural gaits. Work for other breeds too.

Draft wood tree:  Draft horse trees are specifically built for your draft or larger horse. The bars are flatter to fit a broader back. Usually send 7" or 7.5" for fitting...can build in 8" gullet as well

Friesian wood tree--great design for a Friesian horse. Fit other draft and large horses as well that have a tall wither, but are still broad.

6.5" or 7" Mule polymer tree  We recommend the mule polymer trees over the flex for most mules. The polymer bars are straighter and fit most very straight backed mules better than the flex. We can build these mule trees in wood if you prefer for $85.00.

A-Fork or Wade trees --if you order an A-Fork or Wade tree please specify if you animal is mule or horse and if narrow or wide build.

NEW--now have a flex gaited tree in a 7" gullet size (seat size 16 and 17 only) Please do not order this tree for fitting if you need a different seat size. It does not fit exactly the same as a 7" gaited wood tree, it is a little wider.

Saddle trees ship UPS Ground. (Because of the box size required, USPS does not calculate shipping correctly through the webstore)

PLEASE only order a saddle tree for fitting if you are serious about purchasing a Mountain Horse saddle

The "fine print"---please read:

For all saddle fit evaluations that do not result in a saddle build, an evaluation fee of $50.00 is taken out of the $125 deposit if the customer should choose not to have a saddle built for any reason.  If more than one deposit, the fee will not exceed $50.00 total.  Customers must notify us by e'mail at mtmountainhorse@yahoo.com within one week of the FINAL fit evaluation if they are having a saddle built or not.  If we are not notified within a week, the full deposit is forfeited.

Mountain Horse will not refund saddle tree deposits to customers that do not send us saddle fitting pictures and allow us to do a saddle fit evaluation.  We need to be able to evaluate the tree fit to determine what modifications, if any, are needed to get a comfortable fit for your horse.  A 3rd party evaluation is not acceptable.

Please let us know if you run into any delays....we are pretty easy to work with as long as you keep in contact with us.  We do ask that you try to place your saddle order within the week following the final saddle fit evaluation.  If we hold tree deposits for extended periods of time, we run into bookkeeping issues.  Plus, because of limitations on the amount of files our e'mail will accomodate, we have to delete pictures after 6 months (but we do keep a paper file on each saddle customer)