Saddle Construction
Part 4
With the girth straps removed you can now clearly see the two spring steel strips, marked A, that give the name to the 'spring tree'. Their job is to hold the tree in shape when subject to the forces of the webbing on the top of the tree, which is stretched and fixed under tension, and the weight of the rider. Both of these will try to pull the cantle and pommel together - the spring steel counteracts this.
Our next task is to remove the seat cover. It is pre-shaped and sewn together before being attached to the tree.
Which leaves us with the top of the saddle showing the latex foam that forms the padding in the seat.
Taking that layer of latex off reveals another curved wedge that fills in the cantle area.
And underneath a thick hessian layer that provided the base for the latex we've just taken off.
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