Horse Tack Review
Supposedly "Porter Saddle Co."
Wade tree Ranch Saddle
Roping Saddles
For Sale on eBay
For Sale on Amazon
Manufacturer: Supposedly "Porter Saddle Co." (View all products by Porter's Saddles)
Model: Wade tree Ranch Saddle (View all Wade tree Ranch Saddle reviews)
Category: Roping Saddles
Purchase: I bought the saddle in September 2011. I found this saddle on eBay for $500 with free shipping and a 5-year warranty on the tree. Not a bad deal. It showed up right on time and really felt like a good saddle to me.
Likes: The saddle worked great for me with a few tweeks here and there. I'm a working cowboy in Montana so I put the saddle to the test.
First thing wrong with the saddle, latigos. I strapped the saddle onto a colt and when he blew up he broke the latigo and sent the saddle flying. Fixed the latigos and went on.
A couple months later while I was out doctoring calves, both of the actual stirrups broke, still useable but not safe. I replaced them.
While gathering about 200 pairs one day, both of the stirrup leathers broke and my stirrups fell right out from under me. Not only did that excuse for a Blevins buckle break, but the leather actually tore down the middle... On both sides on the same day. Took it to a saddle shop and had him fix them. He commented and said that the leather was extremely cheap and the saddle was put together in a strange way. I know that if you pay $500 for a saddle it may not be the best leather in it.
The final problem was my biggest. I strapped my saddle onto a new colt. The colt did what he had to do and started bucking. The saddle rolled a little and the horse smashed it against a gate a few times. When the dust finally cleared, pieces of that saddle were laying everywhere. The stirrup leather broke at the tree; my breast collar, which was held by one little leather strap, came off but the leather strap was fine but it tore the saddle skirting around the rivets. Cheap leather.
Finally the fork of the tree was broke in half, the saddle horn being only still attached by the mule hide.
I tried to find the company again to see if the warranty would cover such a problem. A search for porter saddle shop showed that Porter saddle co. shut down in 1960. Also I found a website talking about a fraudulent company selling saddles under the porter name.
So the saddle seems to not even have a real stamp on it, let alone a warranty.
Post script:
The I found out that the saddle was imported from India.
Dislikes: Craftsmanship
Quality: Poor
Summary: Not for any real cowboying work
Rating: 1
Author: Boe R.
Date: 2012-12-26
Usefulness Rating: 4 out of 5.
2 reader(s) voted.
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