How to tell if a saddle has full bars or quarter bars the bars of a saddle.
Full or semi quarter horse bars.
T he difference in width at the bottom of the bars between the historical full quarter horse bars and the historical semi quarter horse bars is just over 3 8 of an inch overall or 3 16 of an inch on each side.
Full quarter horse bars usually have a 7 gullet.
Gullet width of 6 3 4 7.
Semi quarter horse bars fit most of today s western horses.
This is for horses with a broad shoulder.
5 3 4 semi quarter horse bars gullet width.
The three terms along with a brief description of each are.
Semi quarter horse bars usually have a 6 1 4 gullet and quarter horse bars usually have a 6 1 2 to 6 3 4 gullet.
Regular quarter horse bars gullet width.
Full quarter horse or fqhb can be referred to as wide usually 7 gullet.
Gullet width of 6 6 1 2.
The width of your horse s shoulder determines the type of tree and gullet width you will need.
This is very confusing to someone buying their first saddle.
Full quarter horse bars sometimes abbreviated as fqh or fqhb have the widest tree.
Semi quarter horse bars horses got bigger and wider from the 1970 s on requiring a wider angle in the bars.
Full quarter horse bars have even wider angles to accommodate wider bodied horses and horses with flatter or mutton withers.
They re considered mutton withered or a less pronounced wither.
The terms quarter horse bars semi quarter horse bars and full quarter horse bars aren t really talking about the bars just to confuse you.
They are terms that were originally meant to describe a fit the way these bars were set and shaped to fit a certain style of horse.
When you are talking about the bars on a western saddle you are referring to the two internal.
Semi quarter horse bars have the narrowest saddle tree and the steepest bar angles.
Quarter horse bars are wider and have slightly flatter bar angles.
6 full quarter horse bars gullet width.
Western saddles are typically offered with either full quarter horse bars or semi quarter horse.
They are designed for mutton withered horses with broader backs.
We ve tried to wrestle this myth to the ground in our shop by standardizing our terms.
Semi quarter horse bars are often referred to as quarter horse bars but others use the term quarter horse bars to describe wide bars so the same saddle can be given different terms.