Because of my occupation as a horseman and horsemanship school instructor, and because of my last name, I am often asked if I am related to, have intimate knowledge of or advice regarding the popular Wade western riding saddle. The only honest answer to these and other questions is both; yes and no. I will try to clarify what I know about the “Wade” saddle and add a little advice to anyone considering purchasing a “Wade”.

Most serious horsemen and horsewomen have at least heard of the Wade saddle. It is almost impossible to study natural horsemanship and not come across some mention of this saddle, especially in western horsemanship circles. Many top western clinicians today ride exclusively in a Wade and have helped to spread its’ popularity.

I too, was interested in knowing if there was any family connection between my immediate family line and Clifford Wade, the man most instrumental in developing the Wade saddle. In the July 1999 issue, Western Horseman magazine ran a highly-informative article by Frank Hendricks on the Wade saddle. I sent a copy of this story to my sister Jeanine, who is the unofficial family genealogist and record-keeper of our family tree and lore. As Clifford Wade was ranching near Enterprise, Oregon when he developed the modern version of the Wade saddle, Jeanine started her research in that region to see if we had any family connection to Clifford. After several false starts, she finally contacted a rancher by the name of Sam Wade, also from Enterprise, who was a great-nephew of Clifford. Sam turned out to be a great fellow and very helpful to Jeanine. At first, she thought there was no family connection to Clifford, but we have since figured out that there is a common relative a few generations back. Sam and Clifford were very close and Sam was a treasure trove of inside knowledge on the early Wade saddle.

Clifford related to Sam that the first Wade saddle prototype was developed in West Virginia. Clifford’s grandfather was a stockman in that state, and like many people of that era, if you needed a tool you designed and built it yourself. This first prototype was crude but very functional. A few years later, Clifford’s grandfather was bitten by the bug to “go west” to the fertile ranch lands of eastern Oregon, so he formed the Wade family wagon train to travel the Oregon Trail, many miles of which run across Wyoming. Much of the Oregon Trail is in the area that we take our Blue Sky Sage guests to ride, so we are traveling in the tracks of that clan of the Wade family that went through, on their way to greener pastures. After a successful journey westward, the Wade family developed several fine ranches in eastern Oregon, where the descendants still reside today as prominent and successful cattle and horse ranchers.

Today, as in Clifford’s and Tom’s day, the only true Wade saddles are custom or semi-custom built on a genuine Wade tree. While all saddle catalogs offer a so-called Wade-style western riding saddle, they are not built over a Wade tree. They are usually just standard stock saddles with the swells removed and sometimes called a “slick fork”, perhaps with a large post-style dally horn. Price is your first clue. Any commercial saddle advertised as a Wade for under $2000 can be assumed to not be built on the Wade tree.

It is important to understand what separates a true Wade saddle from the cheaper commercial knock-offs. The angle and dimensions of the bars of the tree are crucial and specific. While there is some “wiggle room” here, stray too far from the design and you lose the saddles’ ability to fit a wide array of horse confirmations. This is where the knock-offs miss the mark.  Secondly, a true Wade is designed to “get off a horse’s front end”, allowing maximum freedom for the horses’ mobility on his front shoulders. This is a well-known advantage whether you are a dressage competitor or a cowboy on a cutting horse. Any high-level horsemanship simply must allow the horse a full, free range of movement in his front end.

A true Wade saddle is going to be a handmade saddle, either from a production shop like McCall Saddle Company of Vernal, Utah or from an independent custom saddle maker.  The McCall is true to the original pattern, well-made, and reasonably priced, with a starting base price of around $3000 or so. Bobbi rode a McCall saddle for several years and it proved to be an excellent choice for her and her horses both in comfort and fit.

A custom riding saddle built by an independent saddle maker will be a more expensive option, often starting at $4000.00+ as a base price. Several saddle  makers in our region, including Harwood, Castagno, Fandek, or Pollat to name a few, can build a true Wade saddle with fine craftsmanship and the ability to customize everything the customer could want or need in a quality riding saddle, but every customization raises the price. And, it can take up to two years to have a custom saddle built so the wait time and cost can be prohibitive to many riders.

With the understanding that it is difficult and expensive for most people to own a true Wade saddle without resorting to the low-end knock-offs that are prevalent in the marketplace, Bobbi and I have collaborated with custom saddle maker Aaron Fandek of Fandek Saddles & Stirrups in Pinedale, Wyoming to design and build an affordable, true Wade saddle, labeled as the Blue Sky Sage “Double Wade” Women’s Saddle. We have converted all of our company saddles to the “Double Wade” for use by our ourselves, our guests, and our staff. These are custom-built saddles that will be affordable to most serious horsewomen and horsemen, starting under $2500. And, keeping true to its roots, the design retains the foundation of Cliff and Tom’s intent while continuing the evolution to take advantage of modern thought and materials. The “Double Wade” is our take on honoring and incorporating Cliff Wade’s original design, with the inputs from “us Wade’s”, Mike and Bobbi, for riders of today that have become part of the Blue Sky Sage following.

Bobbi and I have spent a literal lifetime using the good, the bad, and the ugly of saddles, and we have learned more about the development and use of the from Aaron Fandek than we could have imagined. Fandek knows what he is talking about with custom saddles and between the three of us, we have developed a design that I think may be the best of the best when it comes to a good, using western saddle at an affordable price. This design came out of a desire to help our horses perform better for our guests, and to give the guests a more comfortable and accommodating saddle to use during their riding vacation with Blue Sky Sage.