Looking toward a new saddle for my wife. I was hoping to get some comments on different tree materials.

Personally, I have never bought and probably never will buy any saddle that doesn't have wood/rawhide/bullhide tree. But for my wife, who is never going to be on any "unfriendly" ones or doing any roping or such I wondered if maybe the other materials might work out.

All else equal, price and maybe weight is the factor for considering. Been called alot of things in my day but rich guy ain't never been one of them.

As not a rich guy either, I try to buy quality. Buying quality means the saddle lasts a lifetime and retains value. AND I'd buy a used good saddle over a cheap new saddle in a heart beat.

While the custom made saddle is going to be the top of the line, it doesn't mean that there aren't some good saddles produced by some shops. I feel that if a company uses cheaper materials in and around the tree, then they will also compromise quality in the leather. Personally I don't think there is a quality saddle with a Ralide tree or a fiberglass covered tree. It is also my belief that just because a saddle has a rawhide covered wood tree, it will be of good quality. Inspect any saddle carefully and chose wisely and not by price alone.

You might want to look at a Lady Wade....Brighton Saddlery has some real nice ones made by McCall's. You can also find some used cheap ones on www.tacktrader.com. They're lightweight for women and made for a woman's body.

Thank you all for your help. I got over my "cheap spell" and bought her a Billy Cook saddle. Pretty darned nice one too with tooling and all. Seems Billy Cook is starting to build them right again after he got over his "cheap spell".

I've got an old Billy Cook that's probably going toward 30 years old. It doesn't have a lick of tooling other than the maker stamp and serial number. It's got almost as many scratches and scars as my body does. It ain't pretty, but it stiil as comfortable as that old hat that makes my wife cringe every time I put it on.

Her saddle cost quite a little bit more than I was looking to spend but I guess buy once, cry once. Thank you all for reminded me of that.