What do I do?

I bought a used "high dollar" roping saddle last year from the saddle maker himself and was told it was perfect condition.  Over all looks it was, I even sent it to another saddle shop to have it checked out and was told "it's fine, but you need to talk to the original maker".  I did, but felt like it was fine for what I was doing at the time.  (cow work and trail stuff).  Any way, now since we have started mounted shooting and the speed has really increased, my horse has started bucking.  Now this is a horse that I have had since she was a yearling and never offered to buck when we was breaking her.

So after getting dumped HARD saturday night, I ask another guy to ride her to see if he could figure anything out, she bucked again, so we pulled the saddle to check her back, then found the tree in the saddle was broke right in the center of the left bar.  So we put a different saddle on her just to see what would happen.....  NO BUCK at all!

Now I have called the saddle maker 3 time, 2 emails and no returns yet.  According to the information from other dealers this maker has a life time warranty on the tree.

What do I need to do if he does not call me back?  I know I have to find another saddle for sure, but I paid big money for this one last year.

Kelly, right ?  I would drive over to the shop. Perhaps he has been gone somewhere, specially since he is a saddle maker. The Paint World has been going on, hasnt it ?  However the tree became broken if its a lifetime guarantee then the maker should honor that. Do you  mind saying what brand it is ?  I bought saddles years ago when we roped from a couple of different makers in Greenville and they always stood behind them. That would be Vega and Sanchez. I dont like the  new Cooks. Too commercial.

Yeap it's me...

This is a MASTER SADDLE, it is one of there custom roping saddles.  The original cost on this thing was $2400.00, but I paid half of that along with his word it was in soild shape.  I guess I should have stuck with my gut feeling when I bought it.  I took it to NRS to have it checked out and they said "looks fine to me, but you need to be talking to Lonnie if you have questions about it".  Well I did talk with Lonnie about it and he asured me this saddle was in god condition and solid, so I paid for it. 

Back when I bought it my horse was stalled up and I was unable to ride her because of a fractured knee she had, so when I was able to get back on her I just took it slow and easy to get her back in shape.  Now going on 7 or 8 months and just now wanting to pick up speed we find this out.  Guess it wasn't bad at a walk or slow trot, but loping is a buckfest!  I thought it was a mare attitude, Toni thought is was just me letting her get away with the attitude. 

We are driving by their place tomorrow and see if I can find him.

If it is a lifetime warranty, Just ask him to fix it. since its summer and prime rodeo horse season, any horseman may be hard to find this time of year.

If there is not a warranty, It's kinda hard ( and not really fair to maker)  to prove that there was something wrong when you bought it and didn't happen to the saddle during the year since you purchased it.

I bought it as a used saddle.  The saddle had rope burn marks around the horn pretty bad but was covered with rubber.  He removed the rubber to show me and asured me all was well, that this belonged to a good friend of his and bought another new saddle.  This is why I took it to NRS for a second opinion.  The saddle had a little movement when checking the horn, but NRS and this maker both told me all saddle have alittle give to them.  So I trusted what I was told.

There is ZREO damage to the under side or anywhere else for that matter.

My thinking is since the maker/seller know us and knows we do not rope figured we would never know anything was wrong with the tree.  I maybe shootin' in the dark but that's my opinion.

According to his employee and other buyers his saddles come with a life time warranty on the tree.  If there was no warranty I would not even ask him, I would find someone else more dependable to use.  If I wold have known then what I know now about the buisness and how that buisness is run I would not have bought anything from them.

My opinion he knew there was something wrong, why else would a regular priced saddle ($2400.00) be half price being a year old.  I did not know at the time this saddle was that high until I found it on thier website. 

That would be nice, I would be happy if they would replace the tree, but that could take upto 6 weeks.  Wish I had not sold my other saddle now.

But the better half just ordered me a new Circle Y Flex Lite saddle so I can get back to shooting next week, she bought her one last year and just loves it and it only weights 26lbs.......  The one she bought me is only 28lbs my horse should love that!

Well my new Circle Y just showed up today, hope to try it out tonight if the rain lets up.

The new on the Master Saddle:  Will be replacing the tree and have it back next week.  Was going to charge me $175. tear down fee but I reminded them it had horn damage before.  Since I was going to pay them to repair the leather around the horn any way I offered to pay 1/2 of the fee.  Guess I could have been nasty about it and tried to make them cover everything but I just want it fixed and wanted to be fair about it.

So ended up going to cost me about 80 bucks to replace the tree and fix the damage around the horn.