Another Saddle Repair: Liam’s Antique Youth Saddle

I have been working on repairing an antique youth saddle for a young man to whom I am providing some horsemanship training. Last week, as I was trying to adjust the stirrups to fit his little brother, one of the stirrup straps broke.

I told his father that this old saddle is pretty worn out, but has good “bones” under the leather. The stirrup straps had been repaired and “cut and pasted” so many times that there wasn’t enough good leather left for any more repairs. I suggested that I could repair it to serviceable status by replacing the stirrup straps, but that the tooling was no longer available, so the repairs would be pretty obvious. He asked me to go ahead and see what I could do.

Well, I like my repairs to old saddles to approximate, as closely as possible, the original parts, so I started taking a good look at the stirrup leather tooling. After studying the stampings a little, I decided I might be able to make the two stamps I needed, one of which, as I said, is not available from any source. After tinkering a little with some steel rods I had in my shop and a couple files, I came up with a couple of homemade stamps that very closely approximate the original tooling on the saddle. In fact, you have to look very closely to tell the difference.

On Monday I cut new stirrup straps and yesterday I completed the stamping patterns, using the best piece of the original stirrup strap as a guide. I’m quite pleased with the result.

This evening I completed the stirrup straps, riveted everything together, installed the new buckles, and cut all the adjustment holes. Then I oiled the new leather well and applied Fiebings Pro Stain, in Dark Brown. I also oiled and cleaned the original sweat leathers and attached them to the new stirrup straps. The resulting repairs will be stronger and more durable than the originals.

Then I used a soapy water solution to clean the rest of the saddle leather. I got the leather sufficiently wet to allow it to dry on my saddle stand and reform the skirts and jockeys, which had dried and curled. I bound the saddle to the stand with belts and bungies and allowed it to dry. After it was dried and its new form set, I oiled it well and applied stain to make it match the new leather more closely, while not losing the patina of the original leather.

On a more valuable saddle, I would have completely disassembled the saddle and cleaned and reformed each piece individually, but for this saddle, that would be more work than it might be worth on its best day, and what I have done will extend the life of this old saddle for another 20 years or so.

As I began to reassemble the saddle, I found I had to replace one saddle string and that the cantle had broken loose from the bars. A previous repair had been made, in which the saddler made a metal piece, which he turned into a decorative piece, and attached it with screws to the bars and the back of the cantle.

It reinforces the connection between the cantle and bars, but I decided to go a little further and make a little stronger repair. I pulled the skirts away from the tree bars and pre-drilled and installed four 2″ #14 wood screws through the bars and up into the cantle. It’s solid now and the decorative metal reinforcement is just that – reinforcement, not the primary holding force for the cantle-bars connection.

The objective of this repair was not to bring this saddle back to “restored” condition, but to make it serviceable again for the purpose of teaching a couple of young boys to ride. I think I was more than successful in that regard and the saddle is now in better condition than it has been for many years past.