Have you been frustrated trying to find the right saddle for your horse? It is a common problem with horse owners who compete or just ride on trails. And a crooked tree can happen to an English or dressage saddle just as easily as a Western saddle. Western saddles are commonly known to have crooked trees. It’s just a matter of knowing how to spot a crooked tree.

Here are a couple of tips and tricks you can use to spot a crooked tree.

1. Place the saddle on a post or stand and look straight down the middle of the saddle horn on a western saddle toward the back of the cantle. Make the horn line up in the middle of the ridge. If you can line it up, look and see how the symmetry of the rest of the saddle looks.

If you have to move the saddle to get the trumpet to line up with the ridge, then it is most likely crooked in the saddle bracket for you to line it up.

2. If you can’t tell with the chair resting on a post or chair stand, place the pommel end of the chair down on the floor, look down, and align the ridge with the horn.

Then look once you have the horn and rim lined up, now very carefully without moving the mount, check and see if the mount panels go in the same direction as the rim and horn. If it looks like they are shooting to the left or right, you have a lopsided saddle.