Tack Tech with Leisha Ashley

Alamo Saddlery was founded in April 1996 under the direction of the late Roy E Martin. Roy had 30 years experience in the manufacturing of western saddles and tack. With his knowledge and expertise we developed high quality saddles and top of the line tack that is priced to target the middle-market. Now run by active horse woman Leisha Ashley, you will find that Leisha and her team have added unique color and style to an already incredible and beautiful line of saddles. Their dedication to the comfort of horses and the complete satisfaction of the owners that ride them is paralleled to none.

All of our products are hand crafted from manufacturer’s selection of skirting leather, latigo and harness leather. American Heritage and Aime supply our excellent, attractive and durable hardware. Our finishes and dyes come from Fiebings and the LCI Company known for their quality and longevity, but clients love Alamo for the affordable price combined with an outstanding look, ride and feel!

We start with trees from a known tree maker Hadlock and Fox . We offer a wide variety of trees including Barrel, Roping, Youth, Show, Pleasure, Reining, Cutting and even and Aussie. Listening to our customers for over 20 years, we have paid attention to feedback on our saddles and have made changes to accommodate their wishes. For instance, we heard the need for a wider tree in the market place and completely remodeled our barrel tree around 6 years ago. With this one change, this tree has become our most sold tree in our company. We understand that we cannot fit 100% of horses but our goal is to fit 95% or more! The roping tree we use is as competitive as some of the most expensive saddles out there. What organizations don’t know, is that we use the same tree as many of the top roping saddles in the market!

Alamo Offers 3 Kinds of BARREL Trees : WOOD FIBERGLASS COVERED Our most sold barrel tree specifications are: wood tree with fiberglass covering, 6 ¾” gullet width, 45 degree angle on bars, 5” cantle, 3.5” horn height. We offer 12,12.5,13,13.5,14,14.5,15,15.5,16,17” seat sizes. We put in shorter fenders for saddles 12-13.5” trees and 14” and up trees we put adult fenders. We also can make wider trees than our standard due to customer demands. We can make any gullet width up to 8.5” and change the degree on the bars. FLEX BARREL TREE We also offer a flex barrel tree, specs are: 6 ¾” gullet width, 5” cantle, 3.5” horn, but of course can be ordered with different specifications. These flex trees are constructed with flexible bars, and they are attached to the swell and cantle. The extra flex you get helps with movement and the fit. HOLLOW RALIDE TREE We also offer a Lightweight tree in 15”. This tree is a molded hollow ralide tree which makes this saddle only weigh 18 lbs. Again, this is a molded tree and is only available in 15”. This tree has been very popular due to the WEIGHT and FIT. Specs are: 6.5” Gullet Width, 5” cantle, and 3.5” horn. This tree is very popular among our clients. The ones who ride it fall in love with it. We have been asked many times for this tree in a 14”.

Alamo Saddles start with a quality tree from our neighbors Hadlock and Fox (located 4 miles from our factory). The leather we use is skirting leather that are American Hides tanned in Mexico. Next we have clicker machines that cut the desired parts of leather depending on what type of saddle is being made. These parts are sent to the tooling department. Our ground seats are put on with lots of skiving workmanship to get the seats just right. We either braid or wrap the horns then we put on the leather for the swells and cantle. We build 7/8” double rigged saddles and 7/8” in-skirt riggings on the majority of our saddles. We use screws, nails, and copper rivets in the construction of our saddles. The special closed cell foam we use in the seats helps to hold its shape over a longer period of time. Our tooling department is bar none one of the best in the industry. We have true artists who carve awesome patterns and transfer exact graphics to leather. We don’t own any embossing machines or staple guns in our factory. ALL tooling is done by hand and horns, skirt attachment, cantles, and seats when we pop stitch are Hand Sewn. The finishing department adds the cinch holders, tie strap holders, latigo tie strap, saddle silver, strings, stirrups, and hobble straps.

Our Barrel Racing Saddles are in high demand for their beauty and performance! Barrel Racing saddles are different than other saddles mostly because of the shape of the tree. Barrel trees most often have a higher cantle, narrower and taller horn and a slimmer swell shape. The skirts on a barrel racers are normally a single skirt with a hole for a back flank set. The stirrups are narrow and the fenders have more of a swing forward and backwards compared to a Roper. As far as cosmetics, well…it is endless: brighter seat colors, fancier conchos, and painted backgrounds to name a few.

Alamo Saddlery offers many styles and trees for our roping saddles. We have Team roping Trees: PTM Team Roper, LTM Calf Roper, and the Bowman. Normal specs are: 7” gullet, 4” cantle and 3 to 3.5” horn. Of course you can order your own specs or other models. These trees are fiberglass cloth covered with ½ glass reinforced with ground seat. The calf trees have a lower cantle than the team roping tree. Basically our ropers are double skirted with 7/8 double rigged skirting. We offer a cutaway skirt for close contact or regular skirt w/extra wear leathers. All ropers come with a matching back flank set. Choices on our ropers are: tooling pattern, background paint color, leather color, conchos, stirrups, lettering and logos.

Whether you're ordering a barrel racing saddle a roping saddle or just a pleasure saddle, I believe Alamo Saddlery has the saddle for you.

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