Category Archives: Saddlery

Saddlery, Western Trails

I finished my first saddle!

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Somewhere around 15 years ago, I decided I would like to learn to make saddles. I began to acquire tools of the trade and bought a number of books on the subject, including the full three-volume set, The Stohlman Encylopedia of Saddle Making, which I have found to be a wonderful resource. I started by making a few items of cowboy gear, such as chaps and chinks, a few knife sheaths and handgun holsters, spur straps, and other useful items, which taught me several valuable skills, such as hand-stitching heavy leather and decorative stamping and carving.

I then started doing various repairs on older saddles, eventually doing a couple of complete restorations, which taught me the basics of how saddles are made and put together.  During this developmental period, I started putting together in my mind what I would want in a saddle of my own. I decided that for my uses, what I needed was a very heavy-duty, but lightweight saddle.  I considered everything from “Aussie” stock saddles to the Santa Fe style western saddle from the 1850s, to modern lightweight saddles, but finally decided that my taste was definitely centered on the late 1800s stock saddles. So, the research began.

After many years of just reading, perusing pages of photos, and looking over saddles from that period in the American west, I finally got up the courage to make the investment in tools and materials to start my own saddle. I will warn the reader here, that this investment in hard cash money, to buy the necessary tools to do this thing right, is no small thing. I am sure that in my sparsely outfitted saddle shop I have well over $2,000 invested in tools by now, most of which are tiny little hand tools, such as stamps, pliers, hammers, and cutting tools. On top of that, a side of top-quality saddle skirting leather now runs in excess of $300 and two are required to make one western style saddle. On top of that, a good saddle tree will run  $400-800, including shipping. When you can buy a good used saddle for $300, this is something you have to weigh in the balance.

Well, in 2021, a friend of mine encouraged me to build a saddle. He even fronted me enough money to buy the leather and tree, provided the saddle would be for him. So, I jumped in. After a bit of research and consultation with the friend-client, it was decided a Wade-style saddle would suit him. I decided on the  Timberline Wade tree, made by Timberline Saddle Trees, Vernal, Utah. It is their “flagship” saddle tree. After consulting with them on the phone, I sent them the custom measurements I wanted in the tree, to suit my client’s horse, and away we went. I also ordered two sides of leather, one 13/15 oz and one 11/12 oz Herman Oak skirting leather from Montana Leather, Billings, Montana.  I also ordered the saddlery hardware from them.

I was very pleased with the quality of the saddle tree. It was money well-spent.

The first item of business was to smooth the pommel to bars junction and dress the saddle horn.

Then comes the ground seat. I elected to make a leather “seat strainer”, rather than the more commonly used tin strainer, as I have read it makes a more comfortable seat. I used the heaviest leather I had on hand, which worked out very nicely.

Next was the gullet covering.

After that, I made the ground seat.  Then it was time to decide on the decorative stamping and/or carving I would do to make the saddle attractive. I had a hard time deciding on this.

Carving designs in leather is not difficult, but the artistry involved is quite complicated. Each saddler or leatherworker tends to follow certain conventions in design, but eventually creates his/her own style and that style becomes his/her “signature” and will identify his/her work ever after. That, to me, makes it a pretty weighty thing. As I have not yet quite settled on my particular style, and as messing up a detailed carving on a saddle can absolutely ruin it and waste much time, labor and cost, I decided to go with stamping designs. After a number of trials and sample stampings, I settled on the design you see below. I then made the Sam Stagg front rigging parts and the stirrup leathers, which I then followed with the back of the cantle.

The stamps used, alternating between the two, are Craftool Pro # D2166 and Craftool #D438. I used a 3/32 grooved tool (of which I do not know the technical name) to make an outline for the design, which helped keep the stamping lines smooth and symetrical.

After installing the gullet cover and the pommel cover, I oiled and stained them with Tandy’s Pro Dye in Dark Brown. The Dark Brown color darkens the leather to a dark reddish-brown, which I find very pleasing. Oiling the leather with warm neatsfoot oil (100% pure neatsfoot only, as neatsfoot compound oil has additives that can harm leather) beforehand helps the stain to absorb more evenly into the leather. Adding more coats and allowing drying/absorption time between coats will darken the color a little with each coat.

I then finished the horn and wrapped it with a latigo horn wrap. I was quite pleased with the result.

Along about this time, I also covered the cinch rings with leather. Leather-covered cinch rings were fairly common in the 1880s. The leather helped the latigo slide over the ring easily, when cinching down a saddle on the horse and keeps the unsightly rusty rings covered. Nowadays, we have stainless steel cinch rings, but in those days they were just plain steel and rust was a problem.

Next came the skirts, which I made out of 13/15 oz leather with a rounded design, reminiscent of the 1880s California style (the Texas style was squared skirts). I made the skirts a bit shorter than might be seen on vintage 1880s saddles, as I wanted to keep weight down.  I used a heavy paper throughout the building process to make patterns, which, in turn, makes the saddle build repeatable and easier the next time. I cut the skirting leather to my patterns, then wet-formed the skirts to the tree bars by tacking them in place tightly until they dried. I then glued and hand stitched the fleece to the skirts.

For me, stitching a pair of saddle skirts takes a good 8-10 hours of pretty intense concentration and labor (not to mention sore fingers!).  In the future, I fully intend to spend the $1,500-2,000 to purchase a stitching machine, which would turn that job into a very simple 15-minute job. I used a synthetic waxed thread, which was what I normally hand stitch with. The wax helps the thread slide through the leather and settle with a uniform tension, which helps the stitches to appear even and uniform. I had to remove  as much of the wax as possible by wiping the thread with leather scraps, as the wax pulls the fleece into the hole, causing tangles and knots. Stitching saddle skirts is a tedious job.

I then designed and made the front and rear jockeys, stained them, and connected the rear jockeys with a saddle braid. In this photo you also see the seat leather, which has been cased and is being molded to the saddle by means of a bench strap. The strap is part of the saddle stand and is put under tension by means of a ratcheting lever. When the seat leather dries, it will be trimmed to final size and readied for installation.

The next process was to make the seat and side jockeys. I decided, based on a video from the YouTube channel, Agar France, to stitch the side jockeys to the seat leather, making the three parts into one. Traditionally, the seat leather was installed, then the side jockeys, the purpose of which was to prevent pinching the rider’s leg between the seat and stirrup leathers.  These were installed as separate pieces. These side jockeys were often tacked to the tree bars with brass tacks to keep them firmly in place during use. Stitching them to the seat leather simplified the installation of the seat leather, making it more like a modern saddle, which incorporates both the side and front jockeys into a one-piece seat leather.

Having watched a particular video by Agar France, which no longer appears on his channel, I decided to place the front jockeys underneath the Sam Stagg front rigging, as shown above, however, once I got the saddle finished, I discovered this configuration interfered with the movement of the stirrups. It caused the inner stirrup leather to pinch between the front jockey and the cinch ring.  The solution was to move the front jockey to cover the rigging straps, which freed up the movement range of the stirrup leathers and was still in keeping with design conventions I have seen in the 1880s stock saddles. In the end, I was pleased with the result.

At this point, the next order of business was to trim the cantle and do the cantle binding. This is, in my mind, is the most difficult and critical part of the saddle making process. If it is done well, nobody notices. If it is done poorly, it stands out and becomes the most noticeable part of the saddle. I have read that the mark of an excellent saddle maker is that the stitches on the backside of the cantle are straight and even. Getting the frontside of the cantle binding stitching straight and even is difficult enough, but getting the stitching awl to penetrate more than an inch of saddle leather at exactly the right angle and exit at exactly the right place, time after time, in a straight and even line, is extremely difficult! I can testify that this takes much experience and effort to achieve. I have stitched several cantle bindings and the results show that I remain a rank amateur saddle maker.

However, I don’t let that get me down and discouraged. I have noticed that in the current generation of saddle makers, most take pains to hide the stitching on the backside of the cantle by various means. Some make a slit in the back edge of the cantle binding leather, such that the stitching on the backside comes out inside the slit, which is then glued down smooth after the stitching is done. Others cut decorative design into the backside of the binding leather and do not run their stitching into it at all, but affix it to the back of the cantle with brass button tacks.

I have never cared much for the Cheyenne Roll, which is the large roll at the top of the cantle, found on modern saddles, especially roping saddles with low cantles. I much prefer the simple cantle binding found on vintage stock saddles, which is what I elected to put on my saddle. I do, however, like the cantle binding to be thick enough to provide a decent hand-hold, making it easier to carry or move the saddle. My cantle binding is made of 12 oz leather, skived thinner on the backside to make forming and stitching easier, covering three layers of heavier leather made up of the seat leather, a spacer leather, and the cantle back leather. This seems to come out about to my taste for the cantle binding thickness.

The cantle binding leather was then cased (soaked, then allowed to sit overnight in a plastic bag) to make it soft and pliable. The edges were then edged with a #3 round edger to make them round and smooth. I used a groover to make a stitching groove along both the front and back edges to allow the stitches to rest below the level of the surface of the leather, to protect the stitches from wear. The groove also provided a guide to help me get the stitching awl to exit in the right place on the backside of the cantle.  I also used an overstitch wheel in the groove on the front edge to mark where the awl would penetrate for each stitch. After preparing the cantle binding leather, I stretched it tight over the cantle, forming it into place using a bone smoother.  I then tacked it into place with shoe tacks. Each tack penetrates through a mark made by the overstitch wheel, so that the hole will eventually become an awl hole and thus be hidden by a stitch.

Once the cantle binding is dry, it retains its form. I then applied Barge contact cement to the cantle top and the cantle binding. Once the cement had dried to where it was no longer tacky, the binding was carefully put into place. Note here that once the two surfaces to which contact cement has been applied make contact, they are pretty much stuck. I used a piece of paper between the pieces and slowly removed it as I got things properly placed.

Once the cantle binding is properly placed on the cantle, the stitching can commence!

Several cantle bindings ago, I bought the best awl and awl blades offered by Tandy Leather. The haft ran nearly $30 and each blade ran about $16. I broke three of those blades within the first several inches of cantle stitching. I examined the blades and discovered that while the blades were very sharp and penetrated the leather easily, they were designed with a natural breaking point right above the point at which they enter the  haft. A very poor design for stitching cantle bindings! I returned to my local Tandy Leather store and discussed the problem with them. They happily refunded my money for the haft and the blades. I then bought their less expensive awl haft – $12.99 – and a variety of awl blades in the $3-4 price range. I have found that I can sharpen these less expensive blades on a very fine water stone and strop them on a leather strop with polishing compound and they penetrate leather more smoothly than the expensive blades. Since that time, I have broken exactly one awl blade. These blades are soft enough that I can put pressure on them to make them penetrate thick cantle leather and exit where I want them to without snapping off the blade in the leather.  Yet they are hard enough to retain their sharpness for a reasonable amount of stitching.

So, to continue…

My cantle binding stitching came out pretty well on the front. The backside, however, is a different story. I have seen worse, but not often. I am not proud of the way the backside stitching came out, but it is what it is, as they say. I still have much to learn (In my defense, the photos make the stitching appear even more rough and uneven than it really is. Some of what you see in the photos is the wax residue from the thread.). On the other hand, if I don’t tell anybody, nobody will look for it and it will go largely unnoticed. Sigh…

With the cantle binding in place, it was time to oil and stain the entire assembly and mount the saddle skirts permanently. To mount the skirts, the traditional method entails installing saddle strings in the leather of the saddle skirts before the fleece is attached, then drilling corresponding holes all the way through all the saddle leather and the tree bars, then fishing the strings through those holes to bind the skirts to the tree bars, then finishing off the installation with a few well-placed nails. I elected to go with a more modern approach.

I installed a series of short lug straps in the saddle skirts prior to attaching the fleece, arranged around the perimeter of where the ends of the saddle bars would lie. These lugs are then pulled up tight around the ends of the saddle bars and nailed or screwed in place. This holds the skirts to the tree bars nicely and allows no movement. This also leaves the saddle strings independent of the skirts, making replacement of damaged or missing saddle strings a simple matter, rather than requiring the complete disassembly of the saddle.

The attachment of the skirts was finished with a number of well-placed nails around the topside of the skirts, including the gullet area.

I had already determined the locations of all the attachment points for all the various pieces of saddle leather to the saddle tree during the pattern-making process. These are the points where the parts are nailed/screwed to the tree.  I pierced each of these attachment points with an awl, so that I could relocate the parts in exactly the same place as the building process progressed.

It was now time for final assembly.

I decided at the beginning of this project, to make my own saddle strings, as the price of a pair of saddle strings at the local tack store has gotten out of hand. I bought a side of 8oz latigo leather and cut from it my 1/2″ saddle strings. I then used a  #2 round edger on the backside (flesh side) edges and pulled them through a tool I made to give the strings a nicely finished shape.

I also made my leather conchos.  I bought concho cutters for 1-3/4″ and 1-1/2″ leather conchos at a cost of around $85-135 each. I figured making conchos was an excellent way to use the mountain of scrap leather I was generating. After cutting a sufficient number of conchos (16 of each size) I oiled and stained them. I then used a 1/2″ slot punch to cut the holes for the saddle strings to pass through. I also cut the 1/2″ slots into the saddle jockeys in the appropriate places.

I attached the saddle strings to the saddle by lacing a string through the appropriate jockey from back to front, then placing a screw in the center of the mounting point in the jockey, where I had previously pierced it with an awl (as shown above). This screw also pierced the center of the saddle string. The jockey was then screwed in place, being careful not to over tighten the screw and make it pull through the leather.  This firmly attached the saddle string in place behind the jockey, using the jockey leather as backing.  The saddle string was then threaded through a 1-3/4″ concho, which was slid into place tight against the jockey. This was then fixed in place with two 1-1/2″ ring-shank nails, one on either side of the now hidden screw. Finally, a brass 1-1/2″ concho (I chose to go with brass conchos to dress up the saddle a little) was slid into place over the leather concho, which covered the two nails, then the assembly was finished off with a bleed-knot in the saddle string.

This was the first time I have used this method for attaching saddle strings and I am quite pleased with it.  My saddle strings get used extensively for tying gear to my saddle and my grandkids use them as climbing aids for getting up into the saddle, so they need to be firmly attached and strong. I think these will handle it. Also, as I stated before, if a saddle string needs to be replaced, it is a simple matter of pulling a couple nails and removing a screw, rather than disassembling the entire saddle.

Now, with the saddle assembled, I finished the rigging by making the strap (probably has a name, but I don’t know it) between the front cinch ring and the rear cinch ring. That was the final piece to complete the saddle. I was finished…I thought.

As I mentioned near the beginning of this very long post, after assembling the saddle, I found the movement of the stirrups were impeded by the front jockey, which pinched the stirrup leather against the front cinch ring. After pronouncing several magic words in the general direction of the saddle, I found that if I rearranged the front jockeys to cover the Sam Stagg rigging, rather than go behind it, the problem was solved and the look was still in keeping with the overall 1880s motif of the saddle design. Thank heavens for those magic words!

Before:

After:

So, I pronounced this saddle finished!

I am  rather pleased with the outcome.  I like the overall design. I feel like it flows rather well and keeps well with the 1880s feel that I wanted. It is made on a modern wade tree, which is a marked improvement over the trees that were available in the 1880s and the leather is generally of a higher quality, due to the modern methods of vegetable tanning.

You will undoubtedly notice the color variation between the saddle and the stirrups. The stirrup leathers came from a different side of leather from most of the rest of the saddle and it accepted the stain a little differently. I considered darkening the stirrup leathers to more closely match the saddle, but the more I looked at it, the more I liked it. I chose to leave it as-is.

Here is a gallery of photos from the build. Click on a photo to see a larger version.

A few final notes about the saddle:

My horses, and the horse the saddle was initially designed for,  are gaited. Gaited horses tend to reach out farther forward and farther rearward with their front legs than the standard Quarter Horse in the walking and gaiting stride, which causes problems with saddles with forward rigging, such as a full-rigged roping or ranch saddle. The forward position of the cinch causes rub sores behind the horse’s elbows. I have found that a 3/4 rigging, by and large, alleviates this problem. I intended to set the rigging of my saddle at the 3/4 position, but had trouble determining exactly how to position it.

I positioned the cinch ring where I wanted it to be, then locked it down with my bench strap contraption to place tension on the rigging leather. The straps coming around the back of the saddle horn then had to be pulled into position to determine where to attach them to the front rigging straps, to hold the cinch rings in the correct position. However, I could not stretch those smaller 1″ straps and had to guess at their proper attachment point. That done, I cut the 1″ strap ends and place rivets to affix them to the front straps. As it turned out, I didn’t get it exactly right and the rigging ended up at about the 7/8 position, rather than 3/4. Still, it fits the horse it will be used on (a strongly built Rocky Mountain Gaited Horse) quiet well.

I generally do not use a rear cinch. Rear cinches came into vogue during the mid-to-late 19th century, when cowboys found that when they latched onto a steer and dallied to their saddle horn, sometimes the back of the saddle came up, often ejecting the cowboy into the dirt with an angry steer staring at him. A rear cinch was devised, moving the front cinch farther forward to what is now called the “full” position. The rear cinch was generally not kept tight, but just snug enough to keep the saddle from pulling up in the back during roping and cutting. A tight rear cinch can cause a horse to buck if it is not made accustomed to it. For my use cases, which are trail riding and horse pack trips, in which no high-performance moves, such as cutting and roping, are ever involved (at least not by choice), the rear cinch is simply dead weight. It has no function at all. I have heard it said that the rear cinch keeps the back of the saddle down when you are going down hill, but the truth of the matter is that if your saddle pulls up in the back while going downhill, it doesn’t fit your horse properly! In fact, my Missouri Fox Trotter has such nicely formed withers and shoulders, that my saddle rarely moves regardless of whether we are climbing, descending, or on level ground. So, why, then does this saddle, which I designed, have provisions for a rear cinch?

Simple. Design. It looked better with the rear cinch ring.

I added several accessory type things to this saddle to suit my own needs. I added 1″ D-rings under the front jockeys as attachment points for a breast strap. I also added 1″ D-rings under the rear jockeys, just aft of the rear cinch rings, as attachment points from which to hang a rifle scabbard or other gear. I added a 2″ brass ring on each side on the front concho, held in place by the saddle string, which I use to carry an axe when I am on backcountry pack trips. The handle of the axe slips nicely through the ring, hanging the axe on the pommel by the head. Very convenient for clearing trails in wilderness areas.

Some of you will wonder why this saddle took me three years to complete. Well, it’s like this…I had a lot of money wrapped up in this saddle – around $1,000 in materials alone – and I desperately wanted not to screw it up. I hated the thought of wasting valuable leather and having to make a new part, due to an error stemming from my inexperience. So, when I would run up against something I wasn’t sure how to do, I would simply set it aside and mull it over…sometimes for months at a time…until I came up with a solution I thought would work or learned something that cleared the process up for me. Then it was a matter of just girding up my loins, so to speak, and getting it done. The process took awhile, but the experience has been invaluable.

And now for the final word.

After all that time, effort, and money, my saddle did not fit my horse! Again, it was initially designed and measurements taken, with a large-boned Tennessee Walking Horse in mind. The saddle ended up being too small in seat length for the rider and then the horse died! So, I continued with the build thinking it might fit my horse. It did not.

So, I took the saddle out to let another friend-client take a look at it, to see if he were interested in it before I put it on the market for sale. He liked it and immediately bought it as a gift to his son for his 16th birthday. That pleased me immensely.

So, am I now a professional saddle maker?

Not by a loooong shot, but I intend to make other saddles and a few of them might get sold. Who knows? One thing I know is that the next saddle won’t take me three years to complete!

Happy trails!

TTH

 

Saddlery, Tack and Gear

Looking For A Good Trail Saddle

I recently read a post on a facebook group page I frequent, in which a member asked for advice on buying a “good” trail saddle in the “under $1,000” price range. Reading many of the responses was almost physically painful to me!  It was painfully obvious to me that there are many, many people out there who have absolutely no idea what a good trail saddle is. It was also quite obvious that many responders have a very narrow perspective from which they judge what a good saddle is, but promote or defend their view almost with religious zeal!

I read recommendations ranging from people who apparently consider a half-hour ride around the neighborhood to be a trail ride, to those who consider 50-mile endurance rides as trail rides!  Most riders fall somewhere in between these extremes, and therefore, the saddles they should consider also fall somewhere in between the recommendations of these two extremes. A fairly large “grain of salt” is in order here.

The fact that a saddle is comfortable on a half-hour ride can’t be extrapolated to the conclusion that the same saddle will be comfortable for the horse and rider after 8 hours in the saddle. Nor can the fact that an endurance saddle didn’t sore the rider or horse after five hours and fifty miles on an endurance ride be conclusive evidence that this same saddle will work well for a horse that is in less-than top condition and a rider who might be a bit overweight on a 20-mile ride over 8 hours or 100 miles over 5 days.

I decided to add my two-cent’s worth to the fray.  After posting it, I realized that I, too, have a fairly narrow perspective from which I judge what a good trail saddle is.  Still, maybe some of my readers will find it of value.

Disclaimer:  This is not a discussion about saddle fit. That is an entirely different religious and political argument!

So, here goes.

To start off, let me just take a few lines to make sure the reader understands the perspective from which I judge a good trail saddle.  I ride long, hard miles, through some very difficult country.  A trail ride less than half-a-day in duration is not common for me, other than the occasional short group ride or training rides. I have, on occasion, ridden 40 miles in a day with no trail, through difficult country (measured by GPS) with horses loaded with game meat and personal gear. I often carry up to 30 pounds of gear hanging from my saddle.

My saddles must have multiple attachment points for gear, such as saddle bags, pommel bags, breast collar, crupper, canteen, bedroll, coat, slicker, rifle scabbard, limb saw, axe, and more.  My saddles must be heavy-duty and have a strong saddle tree with no flex to cause pressure points on my horses’ backs.

My limb saw

The covering material must be strong, durable, resistant to foul weather, and comfortable to both myself and the horse. For my needs, lightweight saddles made for endurance, or inexpensive saddles with plastic trees and fabric covers, or flexible trees, are simply ruled out. That doesn’t mean my saddle must be heavy, just that it must be heavy-duty.

Having these parameters in mind, there are some things that must be considered when I select a saddle to fit my requirements. While price is a limiting factor for me, it can certainly be an indicator of quality. However, I consider price to be a consequence of quality craftsmanship, rather than a determinant of it. Time can temper price, often making used saddles the best option if price is a limiting factor, as it is for me. One can easily find quality used saddles, in need of a little care, that far outstrip the quality and durability of a similarly priced new saddle.

We have all heard and read the many recommendations extolling the merits of saddles with flexible trees or even without trees.  The party line (it’s very much like a political argument) is that the saddle tree (or lack thereof) allows the saddle to flex to conform to the shape of the horse’s back, making it comfortable to the horse.  Anyone must admit that this sounds like a good and reasonable assumption, and it is clearly used to market such saddles, but if you really analyze it logically, this idea fails.

Stop and consider what happens when a flexible piece of wood, such as a popsicle stick, is held by the ends and a weight is placed in the middle. It flexes down in the middle. Right in the middle. Where the weight is. This is exactly what happens with a flexible saddle tree. It flexes down into the horse’s back exactly where the weight on top of it is! Now, this may not be a problem for a horse that is ridden for two or three hours at a time, as the flexible tree will, in fact, spread the rider’s weight and it may actually be comfortable for the horse. But, for a horse that is on the trail for 20 miles, climbing and descending, with a rider that weighs 180 pounds, like me, and with another 20 pounds of gear hanging on it, it is easy to see that a saddle tree that flexes will flex the most where the most weight is placed on it and will impart pressure points into the horse’s back. It is simple physics.

The worst saddle sore I ever saw on a horse was from a heavy rider on a saddle “made for gaited horses” with short skirts and a flexible tree (he was riding a large Tennessee Walker), for which he paid in excess of $1,500. During a long difficult ride, the saddle tree flexed, spreading the bars apart, allowing the cantle to essentially sit on the horse’s spine. Despite the heavy wool-felt saddle pad, by the time we stepped down from our saddles at the end of the day, the sore was ugly and raw.  The following year, the same horse on the same ride with the same rider and similar gear, now sporting a well-made saddle with a rawhide-covered wood tree, not only showed less fatigue, but no sores or tenderness at all.

Again, for my requirements, a flexible tree or treeless saddle is not even in the running. If you are a heavy rider or if you make long rides through difficult terrain, this is something you should consider.

I prefer saddles with rawhide covered wood trees. Despite the sales pitches to the contrary, these are the trees the best custom saddle makers still use. A wood tree allows a very small amount of flexion, just enough to keep the saddle tree from being brittle, and a well done rawhide covering is one of the toughest materials known to man.

Rawhide covered trees have been around for over 200 years and there are saddles still in use with these trees that are over 150 years old. I am not afraid of new technology nor am I saying newer manufacturing techniques may not be equally tough or better. I am only saying that a well made rawhide-covered saddle tree is a proven commodity, and, according to the best saddle makers, still the king.

There are good quality saddles that use trees that used to be called “ralide” trees. These trees are plastic or fiberglass. Some brands that have used these trees are Simco, Bona Allen (sold by Sears and Montgomery Ward), Colorado Saddlery, among others. These trees are a big step down from the rawhide-covered wood tree, but they can still be the basis for a good trail saddle.  These “plastic” trees are far better than a wood tree without the rawhide covering, like some older production-line saddles had.

Tree partially covered in rawhide – poor quality

I wouldn’t recommend them for the kind of riding I sometimes do, but for what most people call a “trail ride” they are perfectly sufficient and are essentially the same kind of tree that many medium-quality, moderately priced ($700-1,500) saddles are built on.

The problem with these plastic trees is that they tend to flex more than a wood tree and they generally have less surface area in the bars. In other words, the tree bars, which spread the weight on the horse’s back, tend to be about 2″ shorter and 1/2″-1″ narrower than rawhide/wood saddle tree bars on saddles of similar seat length and size.  This means there is less surface area to spread the weight over a larger area of the horse’s back.  A good, heavy leather in the skirts can mitigate this somewhat, although most saddles made with plastic trees are also made with lighter, lower quality leather than saddles with rawhide-covered wood trees. They are, however pretty tough and often carry a manufacturer’s warranty that far exceeds that of a rawhide/wood tree.

In recent years, certain tree manufacturers are making fiberglass-covered wood trees. I have read some good things about these trees, but they are still not as popular among the best saddlers as the rawhide-covered wood trees. Could just be tradition, though. My experience is limited here.

“Vintage” Simco saddles (photos from Pinterest)

Years ago, my father purchased a half-dozen or so Simco saddles for a riding school our family had. These all had Ralide trees. Many years later, we still had a couple of those saddles.  The tree on one saddle failed and my father called Simco to see whether we could get a new tree for the saddle. The company told us to send the saddle to them and they would take care of it. Dad shipped the saddle off and several weeks later received a completely refurbished saddle from them at no cost to us! Simco is no longer in business (although their brand name is still used), but the older Simco saddles, made in the 60s and 70s,  are still sought after as a good quality used saddle. They are easy to find in the $350 to $500 price range and are worthy trail saddles if the leather is in decent condition.

Endurance saddles are made for a specific purpose: To ride far and fast in a very short time. They are built on very small, lightweight trees, not intended to carry heavy gear and not intended to carry a heavy rider.  A good endurance saddle, such as the Tucker pictured below, is a well-made saddle. However, it would not be suitable for a horse pack trip. Nor would it be suitable for a heavy rider for a long ride. There just isn’t enough surface area under the saddle to adequately spread the weight of a heavy rider with gear over a long ride on a horse that isn’t in top condition. I consider “Aussie” saddles to be in this same category, although there is a very wide range of build quality in these as well.

Fabric-covered saddles are, by definition, “cheap” saddles. They may be comfortable to ride for those on a tight budget, but they are not durable. These are not saddles that will ever be handed down as family heirlooms. Nor should they be considered for those riders who are heavy or who intend to put a lot of miles in the saddle on horses they care for.  Saddles made with fabric coverings are very lightweight saddles. They are comfortable to ride and much easier to lift onto and off of the back of a horse for a person with physical limitations, than my 40 pound saddle. However, they should not be considered in the same vein as lightweight endurance saddles. In my mind, these fabric-covered lightweight saddles are analogous to wearing flip-flops on a five-mile hike; comfortable at first, but less so as the miles pile up.  These saddles use lightweight trees, as well as fabric sweat flaps for the stirrups. This material tends to wear on riding clothing and eventually wears out itself.  A much better option would be to look for a good used leather saddle in the same price range.

Several years ago, in preparation for a month-long horse pack trip, I was searching for a good trail saddle. I found what I was looking for in the local classified ads. I was able to purchase an excellent saddle made by the Utahn Saddle company of Vernal, Utah (long out of business) that was probably made in the 1960s. I paid $380 for this saddle, a rifle scabbard, a couple good saddle pads, a bridle, and a second saddle that was in dire need of repair.  You can read about that score here. I have since put a couple thousand miles on that saddle.

My Utahn Saddle, fully loaded for a trip

The other saddle, that was essentially a freeby in that deal, I refurbished into an excellent trail saddle that became a gift to my niece. It required a lot of work, but I was able to do it myself at very little expense and I learned a lot in the doing of it. You can read about that experience here.

Refurbished used saddle

I will acknowledge here that as I age, lifting my 40-pound ranch saddle onto and off of my 15-2HH horse is starting to feel like hard work. I intend to make a lightweight, yet heavy-duty, saddle for myself. I have already purchased the tree, from Timberline Saddle Trees, Vernal, Utah, which is their Timberline Wade tree. I intend to cover it with high-quality leather, but minimizing the amount of decorative leather and keeping things in the 25-30 pound range. I have researched some designs and I wrote up some of my musings here.

Saddle by Out West Saddlery, Pagosa Springs, CO

So, what do I look for when I buy a used saddle (other than size and design)? I look first at the tree. I lift the skirts to make sure it is a rawhide-covered wood tree and that the rawhide is in good condition. I don’t mind if a stitch or two of the rawhide lacing has broken, as long as the rawhide itself is in good shape. I make sure the horn and cantle are tight and there is no movement that might indicate a broken or cracked tree or cantle. Next I look at the condition of the leather from an overall perspective. Leather that is dried and curled or scratched can be revitalized with careful cleaning and oiling with saddle soap and PURE Neatsfoot oil. However, leather that is cracked and checked may not be so easy to revitalize.

Sun damage

That is sun damage and it cannot be undone. Sometimes it is so bad that I feel the saddle is not worth attempting to revive. Other times, I can live with it and it can be somewhat mitigated and it’s life extended with cleaning and oil.

Leather that is torn or cut may be repairable inexpensively at a saddle shop or you may be capable of repairing it yourself, as I do.

Next I look at the fleece. Is it in good condition? Is it original or has it been replaced? If it was replaced, was it done well? Is it actually real fleece? Some cheap saddles have fake fleece that is not durable.  Stay away from these. That fake fleece is indicative of the overall quality of the leather and tree. See this post.

Some old saddles had felt instead of fleece on the skirts. That isn’t a problem. Fleece on a saddle is not actually intended as padding. It is there to keep the saddle from sliding around and keep the saddle pad under it. I don’t worry too  much if the fleece is in poor condition, because I can replace it without too much effort for about $100. You can have a saddle shop do it for around $350. It makes a good bargaining point, though.

Is a good cinch included? Are the stirrup leathers, stirrups, and buckles in good condition? These things can be replaced, but, again, make good bargaining points.

Worn out Hamley saddle

 

Repairs to the Hamley saddle

 

The above saddle is a Hamley, nearly 75 years old, still a sought-after saddle. It was handed down to me from my wife’s family. I refurbished the saddle and it is very comfortable and strong.  It fits my narrow-built horses well. Hamley, Pendleton, Oregon, is one of the oldest surviving saddleries in the country and their saddles are very hard to come by…at any price.

In summary, the time factor brings excellent, well-made saddles, maybe in need of a little refurbishment and care, into the realm of possibilities for those, like myself, who may be restricted by price limitations.  It is not difficult for one to find in the local classified ads, a saddle that was once a high-priced, sought after saddle, priced lower in the current market than the cheapest new saddle, made in India or China (read very low quality), that you can find on eBay.  Very often, the quality and durability of those older saddles is still there. It may be hard to see sometimes, and may require a little elbow grease and maybe some repair work at a local saddle shop, to bring it out, but, dollar-for-dollar, they far outstrip the quality and durability one will get out of any sub $1,000 new saddle you will find marketed under any brand. All it requires is a little patience, a little searching, a little care, and only a little cash.

Just my opinion, based on my knowledge and experience. Your mileage may vary.

TH

 

 

 

Saddlery, Tack and Gear

Maybe it’s time for a new saddle

2 Comments

I noticed  a couple weeks ago that the fleece on my old Utahn Saddlery ranch saddle is worn out. I bought that saddle well-used in the spring of 2015 and have put a lot of miles on it since then. I’ve replaced all the saddle strings and many of the conchos, but now the fleece needs to be replaced. That got me to considering that I should build myself a new saddle.

Over the past 10 years or so, I have accrued the necessary basic tools for saddle making and have done minor and major repairs to a number of saddles. I have learned all of the various skills necessary to complete a saddle, but just haven’t yet made one from start to finish. That’s something I have aspired to and I think it’s time.

So, the first step is to decide what kind of saddle I want to build. It seems to be something deeply rooted in my soul to have a love of traditional…even old…ways and things. I absolutely love the 1870s style western stock saddles. The half-seats in particular. So, my first saddle will be a half-seat, similar to this one, built by Kevin Sonmor.

He has a wonderful video of him building this beautiful saddle on his YouTube channel, Agar France:

https://youtu.be/PqgX_G_VPNg

I plan to use a tree from Timberline Saddle Trees, their Old Style Visalia model, with a 15-1/2″ seat length.

I doubt I’ll make it as beautifully carved as Kevin’s saddle, because my leather carving skills aren’t quite as well developed as his, but I’m going to make it a very nice saddle, one I can be proud of.

Recently, I have had a lot of association with horse folks in my own age group and older. I have found that many of them struggle to lift the traditionally heavy saddles onto the backs of their horses. My own Utahn saddle weighs in at around 45 pounds. It seems to be quite common for us older folks to have trouble with our shoulders and I am no exception. Some people have had to resort to some of the very low-end saddles on the market, which are made with plastic trees and inferior materials in order to find a saddle they can comfortably lift. These saddles might be comfortable for short rides, but over the duration of a long, strenuous trail ride, they can not only become uncomfortable for the rider, but also for the horse. And, due to the inferior quality of the materials from which they are made, they don’t last very long, either.

It occurred to me that I might be able to design a saddle that was light, yet built on a high-quality tree, with just enough leather to make it comfortable for both horse and rider, and useful for trail riding.

This would be a saddle that would be durable, comfortable to ride on long trail rides, and be comfortable and safe for the horse, while being light enough for anyone to lift onto the back of their horse. My goal would be to make this saddle come in under 30 pounds, hopefully in the  22-25 pound range.

It might look something like an 1830s Santa Fe style saddle, such as the one below.

Or, it might be a little more elaborate, yet simple, such as this one by Out West Saddlery (I’m leaning more toward this design).

The goal, again, being to build a comfortable, durable, yet light saddle, made of high-quality materials.

The tree I have been considering for this lightweight saddle build, is another one from Timberline. It is the Timberline Wade, again in 15-1/2″ seat length.

Both of the trees I am considering are bullhide-covered wood trees, built to my specifications, very strong and very high quality.

I will be ordering leather and other supplies from Montana Leather, from whom I have bought leather in the past. I have been very satisfied with their leather, their prices, and their service. Other parts and hardware will come from various other places. The total price tag for the supplies alone for the saddle to be built on the Visalia-style tree will be over $1,000. The cost for the lightweight saddle will be a little less, as there is less leather involved.

Once I get these saddles built, I plan to allow some of my riding friends to use them for a ride or two to let me know how they ride and make suggestions for improvements. That’s one of the benefits of making my own saddles: I can rework the design to suit my needs and desires perfectly.

And who knows? I might just find a niche market for the lightweight saddles! We’ll see what happens.

TH

P.S.

Don’t worry, I plan to re-fleece my old Utahn saddle and it will continue to get a lot of miles put on it. It’s a very well-built and comfortable saddle.

Saddlery, Tack and Gear

Another saddle to repair

After the successful repair of my buddy’s old youth saddle,

I decided to pull another old saddle out of my “to-do” bin and take a look at it.

It needed the same kind of repair as my buddy’s saddle: the front of the left side saddle tree bar had broken off from the stresses imposed by the cinch rigging. The last repair went so well, I decided it was time to get this saddle out of the bin, repaired, and get it sold to someone who could use it.

So, I started taking it apart. Here’s what I found:

This is a very cheaply made off-the-shelf saddle.  Some previous repairs were evident: conchos and saddle strings had been replaced and everything reattached with screws. The seat was made in several pieces of leather, rather than one piece of high-quality firm leather. The ground seat is padded with upholstery padding, the skirts are made of several pieces of tooled leather stitched onto a heavier backing piece, to which is glued and stitched fake fleece on cloth backing (which is also in very poor condition). The machine stitching on the skirts has cut clean through the skirt backing leather, so that the backing leather must be replaced.

The tree was made to appear to be a high-quality bullhide-wrapped wood tree, but in fact, the tree was only partially wrapped in paper-thin rawhide, which was then tacked, rather than stitched, to the tree. The tree itself not only has the front of the left bar broken off, but the right bar is split through most of its length. This tree would have to be glued back together, then wrapped in fiberglass to be considered “repaired.”

This is a saddle that was made as fast and cost-effectively as possible, to then be sold as an inexpensive saddle. It was not intended to be an heirloom. It is dressed up like a good trail saddle, but it simply was not made to last. This is the kind of craftsmanship one should expect in the $500-$800 price range for today’s western saddles. In fact, the plastic trees this price-range of saddle is normally made on is superior to the tree this one was made on. Do not interpret that to mean those plastic trees are good saddle trees, just better than this one.

In the final analysis, I could put 8-10 hours into repairing the tree and replacing various leather parts, repairing the skirts, re-fleecing the skirts with real fleece, making a new horn and wrap, making a new ground seat, and re-installing all the outer leather, a total of around $4-500 in materials and labor…and the saddle would still be a cheap old saddle.

I guess sometimes you just have to say it’s not worth it.

TH

Saddlery, Tack and Gear, Western Trails

Another old, beat up, unusable saddle brought back to life

2 Comments

A couple weeks ago, I saw an old saddle in my buddy’s tack room. It was obviously an older saddle, probably from around the 1940s or so, with small sweat leathers and the stirrup leathers exposed on the outside of the sweat leathers. It was a small saddle, measuring 14-1/2″ on the seat, and built like a youth saddle. The leather was dry and cracked and in need of a good cleaning and oiling. As I looked closer, I saw that on the left side (on-side), the front of the tree bar, to which the left side of the cinch rigging had been attached, was broken. The bar had split and departed. The rigging attachment was missing altogether and the rigging ring was held in place by a couple leather boot laces tied around the pommel and through the hand-hole – obviously a “just-get-me-back-home” kind of repair.

My buddy has several grandkids he likes to get out on horses every chance he gets, so I asked if he would like to have that saddle repaired. Looking rather doubtful, he said, “Sure, if it’s worth saving!” I told him I’d give it a shot.

The following week, I tore the saddle apart to see what I could do. I was immediately sorry I had forgotten to take a “before” photograph. Oh well, you can see from the photos of the repair process what needed to be done.

The first thing was to remove enough of the leather to assess whether the tree was, in fact, repairable. I was disappointed in what I found. The tree was not rawhide covered, but was made as cheaper saddles were made “back in the day.” The wood tree was covered with a cloth mesh, not unlike what we call “cheese cloth” and that was painted with a thick glue-like varnish to seal the tree. The cloth mesh adds little or no strength to the tree, but helps in the adhesion of the glues used to attach the leather to the tree. I found the tree itself to be loose at all the joints. In other words, it was not in very good shape.

I decided that I could repair the broken tree bar by gluing and screwing a piece of pine in place of the missing piece, then milling it to match the other side – not a difficult thing, since the tree was not covered with rawhide. I have both the tools and the skills as a woodworker to do that repair easily. In a couple hours I had the repair done and was pleased with it. I further strengthened the tree by drilling pilot holes and driving in 2″ screws through the bars and into the cantle and pommel. It is now quite firm and all the joints are tight.

I reinforced the repaired bar with a single layer of fiberglass bi-directional cloth over the length of the bar. It didn’t go on very well, as you can see, but it will be strong enough for its purpose. I also painted a layer of resin over the rest of the tree to seal and strengthen it. The resin doesn’t have much strength in itself, but it tends to soak into the surface layers of the wood and adds some strength there and it would also add a little reinforcement to the cloth mesh and varnish already on the tree. Regardless, it would be stronger than it was when it was made.

The next step was to sand the whole tree smooth, since the fiberglass resin made every little string and sliver hard and prickly. Once smoothed, it was time to start replacing all the saddle leather.

I started with the gullet leather. It went on easily.

The ground seat was next.  Most saddlers use a tin “strainer” as the foundation for a ground seat, while some higher-end saddlers make a ground seat entirely of leather. This saddle originally had a tin strainer, so I reused it.  All the old nails had loosened, so I reattached it with zinc-coated roofing nails, which should hold it much better than before over the long-haul.

After the strainer was in place, the ground seat was completed with the same leather as before. I wanted to re-use all the leather that came on the saddle, as far as possible, so that I wouldn’t have trouble with the outer leather not fitting back on the saddle properly.

Next was the saddle horn. The old one was worn out and loose. The leather was stretched and the stitching was coming loose. The original horn was quite small, but it looked right in proportion to the saddle, so I made a new horn and wrap pretty much as it was made originally…at least size-wise. I used better leather than was used originally. I think it came out pretty well.

Next came the rigging. I decided to go with a Stohlman-style 3/4 rigging, which would be immeasurably stronger and more durable than what came on the saddle and would be less likely to put undue stress on the tree bars and break the repaired area again. I made paper patterns, based on patterns provided in The Stohlman Encyclopedia of Saddle Making, Volume One. The original rigging was pretty close to a “full-rigging”, but I moved it back, so that it would allow the cinch to ride a little farther back for my friend’s Fox Trotter horses.  I attached the rigging with three 1″ screws, front and rear each side. This rigging will still be strong when all the rest of the leather on the saddle has rotted away and is useless.

Once the rigging was in place, it was time to start replacing the outer leather. I started with the pommel cover, which is standard operating procedure. Next came the seat leather. Since this is an old-style saddle, it has a total of 16 leather conchos (sometimes also referred to as conchas) and 8 saddle strings. This is sometimes called an “8-string” saddle. More modern saddle designs are 6-string, because they combine the front jockeys with the seat leather as one piece. Personally, I like the 8-string design. It imparts a traditional look, I think.

I cut and prepared the 16 conchos, 8 at 1-3/4″ and 8 at 1-1/2″.  I applied neatsfoot oil and Fiebings Chocolate colored stain to them to make them look a little closer to the color of the original leather.

Here is where I changed things a little. I hope the changes are stronger and yet invisible to the casual observer. When I repair a saddle, I try to make improvements where possible without detracting from the original design and patina of the old saddle. If I know a repair is there, but I can’t see it, I feel like I have done well.

The original saddle skirts were attached to the tree bars with a few nails here and there, but mostly with saddle strings that passed through the tree bars in various places, then through the saddle leather, and were finished with a bleed-knot. You only see them as saddle strings on the outside. This is the traditional method for attaching saddle skirts to the tree bars. It has worked well for a couple hundred years.

More modern saddles, particularly show saddles no longer have any need for saddle strings and some prefer not to have them at all. On these saddles, the skirts are attached with screws and nails only, with a few leather tags to hold the ends of the skirts tight to the bars. Saddle strings passing through the tree bars are entirely eliminated. This obviates the need to drill holes through the saddle leather and through the tree bars. Some feel these holes weaken the tree bars, but I have seen little evidence of that when care is taken to make sure all the holes are drilled properly in the right places.

For this saddle, however, I decided the best method was to use screws. Not all the holes in the original tree bars were drilled in the right places and putting everything back as original would have been a mistake in my estimation. The saddle skirts originally had leather patches sewn to them on both ends, which was pulled up over the front and rear of the bar and attached with nails. This was to keep the ends of the skirts tight to the bars. Only one of the leather patches remained. It was on the rear of the left skirt. I made a similar patch from scrap leather and used my industrial sewing machine to stitch it to the rear of the right skirt.

With the new rigging in place, this method would no longer work on the front of the saddle skirts, so in the front of each skirt I punched 1/4″ holes and installed two leather thongs on each side. These I pulled tight over the front of the bars and fixed them with nails through the rigging leather and into the wood of the bars. I then put nails and screws in all the appropriate places to ensure the skirts never move and provide another few years of good service before they need to be re-fleeced.

This being a trail saddle, however, means it should have saddle strings. So, on the upper side of the saddle, I strung the saddle strings through existing holes in the saddle leather, then slid the large concho into place. I then used an awl to make a pilot hole in the concho, through the saddle leather, and through the center of the saddle string. I then set a #10 X 1-1/4″ wood screw through all that and into the saddle tree wood. This method firmly fixes the saddle leather to the tree and creates a very strong substrate to give strength for the saddle string. The small concho is then set in place over the large concho, covering the screw head. The saddle strings are then finished with the traditional bleed knot.

Some saddlers attach the conchos and saddle leather to the tree in this method, but use a small D-ring to attach the saddle strings. I prefer the traditional look of the bleed knots and no D-ring.

As I reassembled the saddle, I oiled each piece of leather with a heavy coat of 100% neatsfoot oil, which it absorbed thirstily, and then went over each piece with Fiebings leather stain in Chocolate color, to blend the new and the old as much as possible. You can see the difference in the following photos:

Speaking of D-rings, I forgot to mention that I added D-rings to the front rigging for a breast strap attachment point. I also added a D-ring to the left rear, under the concho at the cantle, for the attachment of a rifle scabbard strap or anything else one might wish to attach there.  On that D-ring, I made an attachment from tin and slid it up under the rear jockey leather, to make it as unobtrusive as possible. The screw that holds the saddle leather and concho in place passes through it as well, so it will be a very strong attachment point for a rifle scabbard.  After installing it, I decided to go back and attach a similar D-ring on the other side as well, so one has a choice of which side to carry the rifle scabbard. I’ll get to that tomorrow.

I still need to make a new rope strap that attaches to the pommel and a stirrup keeper strap, as well.

There are few things in life that bring me more pleasure than taking something old and broken and making it work again.

This still an old saddle, but it is now ready for another 20 or so years of riding service for my buddy’s grandkids!

TH

Saddlery, Tack and Gear

Finished my repairs on another old saddle…

I finished the repairs on another old saddle last week. Thought I’d make a short post about it.

This is an old saddle I bought just prior to my big horse pack trip in 2015. I was looking for a good saddle for the trip and happened to find an ad in KSL Classifieds for a couple saddles in Price, Utah. After a little dickering I picked up two saddles and some extras for $380. I wrote a post about the purchase, which you can read here.

The better saddle of the two is the one I have been riding ever since, but the other was in pretty poor shape. It was an old ranch saddle, probably made around the 1940-60 time frame.  It had a good rawhide-covered wood tree and was a well made saddle, although not what I would consider top-grade. It was a good, solid work saddle in need of repair.

The seller apologized for it’s condition, confessing he had lent it to his son, who left it in his garage and let his dog chew on it.  He had done some repairs to the saddle himself, however, so the fleece was fairly new, but the saddle strings were mismatched and several conchos and other attachments hadn’t been stained or oiled. In other words, it needed a lot of work.

(Click on the photos to see the gallery full-size)

It sat in my workshop, stacked on top of the bones of several other saddles in need of repair, until last month, when I finally got around to taking a good look at it.

It was evident I needed to replace the seat jockey, although I toyed with the idea of just trimming off the ugly and selling it. I finally decided this was a good learning opportunity for me, since I aspire to eventually be a decent saddle maker.

I started by disassembling the saddle and removing the cantle binding. Then I pulled the seat jockey off the saddle. It revealed a seat on the tree that had been inadequately prepared before the seat was applied. While this is evidently a custom-made saddle (it is definitely not a factory-made production saddle) there is no maker’s mark, serial number, or any other identification of the maker or saddlery. These kinds of saddles often come from small shops where the saddler makes one-off types of saddles intended for sale. In order for the saddler to make a living at it, he often cuts corners and skimps on things that don’t show in the final product, but can make the saddle less comfortable and durable. That was the case with this saddle.

I found the seat to be composed of a tin strainer tacked to the seat with a thin layer of leather covering the front half of the strainer, and the seat jockey applied directly over the tin and rawhide on the seat. In my rebuild, I followed a better practice of covering the seat strainer and seat with a layer of heavy leather, which is then skived to make a smooth seat. That is then covered by the seat jockey, creating a much smoother, more comfortable, and more durable seat.

I also made a new front right jockey, as the original one had the corner eaten off by the infamous dog in the garage. In order to make this piece look as original as possible, I had to search out and acquire the correct stamping tools for the tooling. Search as I might, I was unable to find one of the stamping tools required, so I made one out of a 3/8″ by 6″ bolt. I thought it imitated the original stamp pretty well. One would have to look pretty closely to see the difference.

I cut out the raw seat from a piece of Herman Oak 13/15 oz leather I had bought for the purpose. I wet it and let it case overnight, then stretched it over the saddle, using my saddle-making stand, cranking the seat forming belt down tight. I used the old seat to help me determine where the ear cuts should be at the sides of the cantle, where it meets the tree. Once formed and marked, I pulled the seat jockey back off, cut the ears, and tooled it with the stamps I had made and bought, imitating pretty closely the original patterns.

That done, I was now ready for the part I find the most tedious of the whole affair: the cantle binding.

I cemented the formed and tooled seat jockey to the tree with Barge contact cement (Barge is the brand normally used by saddlers, as it was originally formulated for leather), making sure everything was properly aligned and straight. I trimmed the excess leather from the back of the cantle, leaving 1/2″ to form a good, rounded cantle. I made a cantle binding out of a piece of about 10 oz leather, skived thinner on the back side (the part that is on the back side of the cantle) to make it easier to form to the contours of the cantle. I edged and put a stitching groove on the front side of the binding, then wet it and let it case overnight. I then formed it to the cantle and tacked it in place. I let it get almost dry, before cementing it with Barge contact cement to the cantle.

Now the hard part. I marked the stitching holes, front and back, with an overstitch wheel with a 6-stitch-per-inch wheel on it, so I would know where to insert my stitching awl and where it should come out of the leather on the back. Sadly, my expensive Craftool Pro awl wasn’t up to the task and I broke three awl blades in the first six stitches (those blades are $16 each). Pushing an awl through an inch of good leather is tough! The blade has to be strong and sharp. The Craftool Pro blades were simply not up to the task.

Happily, my local Tandy store takes customer service seriously and they refunded my money for two awl blades and the haft (Craftool Pro hafts are made to only fit the Craftool Pro awl blades) and allowed me to put that toward their lower-priced awl haft, which accepts a variety of blades, and to buy a set of their lower-priced awl blades, which are not as well made, but are much stronger.  That leaves me with a credit at their store, which I will have no problem using up in the near future. Thank you Tandy, Orem, Utah.

Anyway, back to the cantle binding. I took my new awl and blades (these blades run about $5 apiece) and sharpened them on my water stones, then polished them on my strop. I broke one more blade through the last stitch of the cantle binding, but it wasn’t nearly as painful.

One of the marks of an excellent saddle maker is the stitching on the back of the cantle binding. An excellent saddler will show nicely spaced and aligned stitches on the back, while a less expert saddler’s stitches will be misaligned, and poorly spaced. I am here to tell you that is a skill that is developed by strict practice and many, many stitches. Mine is admittedly pretty mediocre, but not too bad for my second cantle binding. Many saddlers nowadays avoid the entire issue by either using tacks rather than stitches, or by using hidden stitches, on the back of the cantle. One technique is to split the leather on the back of the cantle binding and stitch under the flap, then glue the flap down to hide the stitches.  I think I may try that next time, however, I have to say I truly admire a saddler who leaves exposed stitches on the back of the cantle that are perfectly spaced and aligned. It is truly one of the telltale marks of an excellent saddle maker.

 

I was pleased with the finished cantle binding.

The next step was to stain the new leather to try to make it match as closely as possible the original leather. I decided on dark brown stain. I prefer Feibings Pro Dye and have had good luck with it in matching original leather finishes. The Pro Dye is an oil-based dye, which I find penetrates and finishes more evenly than the alcohol-based dyes.

First, since my shop was cold with snow on the ground outside, I placed my gallon container of Fiebings 100% Pure Neatsfoot Oil in water in an old crockpot cooker I have in my shop, and heated it. Warm oil penetrates leather better than cold or room-temperature oil. Once it was warm, I applied a heavy coat of oil to the entire saddle, including under the skirts and the backsides of all the parts, both old and new, as well as the saddle strings. Once that had soaked in, I wiped off all the excess oil, then applied the stain with a piece of fleeced sheepskin. I applied stain to the entire saddle, considering that the original color of the saddle was faded and uneven, as evident in the above photos, and that the stain would help hide marks on the pommel from the dog’s gnawing on the leather. It worked pretty well. The original leather was darkened to a nice dark brown. However, the new leather lightened up a bit as it dried and took on a mahogany hue with dark edges – pretty, but exposing obvious restoration. Personally, I don’t like my repairs to be obvious. I like them to return the saddle to as much of an original look as possible, while returning the saddle to serviceability.

I followed the dark brown stain with a coat of Fiebings Pro Dye in Chocolate. That did the trick. The seat jockey, saddle strings, new conchos, latigo carrier, and new right front jockey, now blend in well and it takes a closer look to determine that they are, in fact, restoration/repair pieces, rather than original. I like that.

The final step in the repair was to replace the rigging straps that connect the front rigging ring to the rear rigging ring, and to reassemble the entire saddle. I still need to make a pair of stirrup keepers, but other than that small detail, the saddle is ready for service. I’m happy with the outcome. My skills are definitely improving as a saddler.

Sadly, after all that work, the saddle is just a tad small for me. It measures a 15″ seat, but rides like a 14″ seat, due to the angle of the pommel swells and the extra layer of leather I installed to improve the seat.

So, this saddle is ready for another 75 years or so of faithful service.

 

Good Stories, Saddlery, Tack and Gear

Finally finshed the repairs to the Hamley!

Those of you who have followed me for a while will remember that way back in about October 2012, during a training session, my mare, Penny, blew a gasket and let off a bunch of steam. In doing so, she went down and as I made my exit, my spur caught the seat jockey of my Hamley ranch saddle and ripped it. The spur also left a long scratch across the seat. Then, Penny wallowed around on the ground a bit, trying to regain her feet,  scratching the pommel pretty good. When she got her legs back under her, she jumped up right into a large oak tree, punching a stick about the size of my index finger right through the cantle binding. Luckily, both Penny and myself were ok, but the saddle took a beating.

Just a few days later, I went to mount Penny, who was wearing the Hamley, and the on-side stirrup strap broke. As I inspected things, I noticed that the rear rigging was about to break loose as well. It was time to put the Hamley on “injured reserve” and start looking at repairs.

(Click on the photos to see them full-size)

Now, it’s not like I ruined this saddle. If you are familiar with western saddlery, the name Hamley should ring a bell. Hamley, Pendleton Oregon, has been making quality saddles since 1883. They are one of the few saddlers still in business from the days before the horseless carriage came into vogue. In fact, I sent the serial number of the saddle to Hamley and received a Certificate of Authenticity, confirming that the saddle was made for my wife’s uncle, Earl G. Richins, and that he paid $154.50 for it in 1947. Cool!

So, this saddle belonged to my wife’s uncle until he passed away in 1974. Then we think it passed on to his sister’s husband, who rode it until he was in his 90s, when the ranch he rode for apologetically told him they couldn’t use him anymore, because they were afraid he’d get hurt. Well, he also passed away and the saddle eventually passed on to me, being the last of the family with horses.

With that little history, it won’t surprise you that the saddle had been through several repairs during its lifetime. One stirrup leather had been replaced by scabbing in a section of new leather in order to retain the original tooling on the outside. The other stirrup leather had been changed altogether…the one that broke…and the tooling did not match the original. Also, the skirts had been re-fleeced at least once and the last time it was done was a poor job. The skirts were curled around the edges and the fleece was wearing out. The rope strap had been broken and replaced long ago, as had the original saddle strings. In other words, the poor old saddle was in need of major repairs…again.

Now, I have aspired to become a saddler for many years, although I had never actually done anything more than a few minor repairs on my own saddles and one major rebuild of the pony saddle I learned to ride on as a kid. However, in doing my research I found that having Hamley rebuild this saddle was way beyond my reach financially. Since the saddle was in such poor shape to begin with, and since so many repairs, of varying quality, had already been done to it, I decided that the value of the saddle couldn’t be degraded much more if I did the repairs myself. So, the decision was made. I would use the Hamley to improve my knowledge, skills, and experience as a saddler.

Over the years since 2012, I have acquired the basic tools that all saddlers seem to have. I have also acquired the basic skills that saddlery requires. Several months ago I disassembled the Hamley and removed the damaged parts. However, the rest of my life made me put the Hamley on the back burner. Then, during about November last year (2017), my wife received a telephone call from her cousin, the daughter of Earl G. Richins. She was asking whether we knew the whereabouts of some of Earl’s belongings. She was only about 13 years old when Earl died and, due to some unusual circumstances, some of his belongings had passed on to his siblings, rather than to his young children. That included my Hamley saddle.

My wife told her about the saddle, the needed repairs, and asked whether she would prefer I reassemble it and leave it as original as possible, or whether I should do the repairs needed to make it a serviceable saddle again. She never really answered the question, but said she would like to have the saddle. I decided the right thing to do was to go ahead with the repairs and give her the saddle in working condition. After all, it was her father’s saddle and she was the rightful owner.

Last week I finished the last of the repairs and reassembled the saddle. This afternoon I took it on a shake-down ride, to make sure my repairs meet muster and are comfortable to ride.

Here is a list of the repairs I made:

  • Replaced the torn cantle binding
    • Oiled and stained the cantle binding to match the color and patina of the original leather
  • Replaced the old rear rigging leathers
  • Replaced both stirrup leathers
    • Tooled the stirrup leathers to reflect the design of the original tooling on the saddle
    • Stained the stirrup leathers to match the color and patina of the original leather of the saddle
    • Cleaned and stained the sweat leathers (which had been replaced in an earlier repair) to match the original color and patina of the saddle
    • Replaced the Blevins Buckles with new, better ones.
  • Replaced the old cinch latigo with a new one
  • Replaced the rope strap
  • Made new stirrup keepers
    • Tooled the stirrup keepers with a “R” for Richins.
  • Stained the scratches and gouges on the seat and pommel to hide them
  • Refleeced the original skirts (hand-stitched)
    • Added backing to the skirts to stiffen them and keep them from curling
    • Replaced the saddle strings with 1/2″ heavy latigo strings
  • Patched and stitched the rip in the seat jockey.
  • Oiled entire saddle and gave it a nice finish.

I have to say, I’m very pleased with the way the saddle turned out.

The one repair I’m not proud of is the repair to the tear in the seat jockey. I used waxed poly thread and it would not take stain, so the thread stands out white against the dark leather of the saddle, making the repair very obvious. It’s serviceable, but way too obvious. That was a lesson learned and a mistake I will not make again.

So, next week I will give my wife’s cousin a call and make arrangements to return this saddle, which is hers by right of inheritance, to its rightful owner.

I think Earl Richins would approve.

Good Stories, Saddlery, Tack and Gear

A little more progress on the pony saddle…

I got the ground seat finished today and started on the rigging. I’m hoping I’ll get the rigging done and started on decorating the skirts, jockeys, and sweat leathers on Thursday. Not going to have much time tomorrow.

This is an enjoyable learning experience for me. I’m pretty slow at it right now, since I have to study up on each step as I go, just to make sure I’m doing things the right way and in the right sequence. I hope I get a little faster with each saddle. As it is, I still have six more saddles in various stages if disrepair to get done at some point in the future. I’m essentially “cutting my teeth” on this little saddle.

Christmas is sure coming fast. Hope I get it done in time!

Adi's saddle with the ground seat installed
Adi’s saddle with the ground seat installed

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Good Stories, Saddlery, Tack and Gear

Working on Christmas…

I’m pretty excited today.

Adi
Adi

Several months ago I started working on a Christmas gift for my oldest grandchild, Adi. She’s four years old. Last spring she saw a pony and told her mother, “Pop-pop (that’s me) is going to buy that pony for me.” Nobody is sure where that came from, but it sure clicked my switch!

So. Pop-pop figured he’d better get to work! I decided to take the old, worn out pony saddle I learned to ride on and rebuild it for Adi’s Christmas present. Like I said, I started on it several months ago, but didn’t get far. I disassembled it and made a few repairs on the saddle tree. Then a couple months ago I bought the leather for it. Then about a month ago I cut all the parts out of the leather. Well, yesterday I got back to work on it.

The tree had a couple places on the pommel where filler had broken out, so yesterday I repaired the tree with auto body filler. Worked like a charm.

Today, I installed the gullet cover and covered the horn.

For my first saddle, I’m pretty pleased with how the horn came out.

Looking forward to making some more progress next week. I’ll keep you posted.

12/15/2016:  I’ve made a little more progress on Adi’s saddle. I’ve finished the ground seat, installed the pommel cover, and have the stirrup leathers ready to finish.  I’m working on the saddle skirts now and should have them finished by the the week’s end.

Saddlery, Uncategorized

Picked up a couple “new” used saddles today…

This afternoon I picked up two saddles, a bridle with a good D-ring snaffle, an old, but good saddle pad, and a rifle scabbard, for $380.

Two saddles for the price of one.
Two saddles for the price of one.

I have been looking for a saddle to take on the big ride, because it doesn’t look like I’ll get the repairs to my Hamley finished in time. I have been shopping for good used saddles, because I don’t want a squeeky-new saddle to break in on the trail. Not only that, since I am operating on somewhat of a budget, I can buy a very good used saddle, even if it’s a little beat-up, for less than I can buy a very poor new saddle, not to mention a good one. I had already called on a couple saddles advertised for sale in the northern Utah area, that were priced in the $650-850 range, and was tempted on a couple in the $1100-1500 range. The problem I always ran into was that they were either Full-Quarter Horse bar saddles, or Regular-Quarter Horse saddles, both of which would be too wide for my high-withered, narrow backed fox trotters. I needed a saddle with a gullet width of about 6″ and a fairly tall gullet.

When I came across an ad for two saddles for $400, under 100 miles away, I took a closer look. Although the ad didn’t give many specifics, other than that one was old and one was in good condition, and that they were 15″ seats, one photograph showed the gullets of both saddles, and I could see right away that they were not the usual QH bar saddles. I called on them and the seller agreed to meet me halfway, up on Soldier Summit.

When I arrived at the designated meeting place, I was met by a man in his seventies, who greeted me with a smile. He opened his camper shell window and tailgate and slid the saddles back to where I could take a look at them. He said he had kept them around for a long time, thinking he would buy another horse, but has finally conceded that he never will. So they were for sale.

The "newer" saddle
The “newer” saddle

I could see right off that the newer saddle was in very good condition. The only thing detracting from its value was a large “44” carved into the stirrup sweat leathers. This one was won by somebody at a show or rodeo. The leather was in great shape, as was the skirting and fleece.  I checked under the front jockey and was pleased to find a rawhide-covered wood tree bar. Recognizing that this saddle alone was worth pretty much what he was asking for the whole shootin’ match, I stopped inspecting this one and turned my attention to the older saddle.

This one is about 75 years old
This one is about 75 years old

This saddle was probably 75 years old and in need of some pretty extensive repair to the leather work. The seller apologetically showed me some rodent damage to the seat jockey and other parts that he hadn’t seen before he put them in his pickup. The mice have chewed a large part out of the lower part of the seat jockey, chewed off the corner of the right front jockey, chewed off the end of the cincha keeper, and chewed off a couple of saddle strings. There are scars on the pommel as well. Additionally, the leather straps all need to be changed out and the cantle binding was coming loose. However, this saddle, too, was built on a rawhide-covered wood tree that is very solid. The rawhide appears to be in very good shape. I Couldn’t find a maker’s mark, but it is a very well-made ranch/working saddle. It’s just in poor condition.

Newer fleece on the old saddle
Newer fleece on the old saddle

On the bright side, the seller had the skirting fleece replaced professionally a few years ago, so it’s in great shape. The seller said he was told it might be a Hamley, but I have a Hamley and I don’t believe this is one. I figured I could do the repair work to turn this back into a good riding saddle.

I inspected the bridle and found it has a usable pair of braided para-cord reins as well as a good egg-butt D-ring snaffle. The bridle needs oil, but is in good shape.

Bridle with snaffle bit, saddle pad, and rifle scabbard
Bridle with snaffle bit, saddle pad, and rifle scabbard

The saddle pad has some rodent damage in one place, but in fact it is still a good pad – wool blanket over a foam insert and wool-felt pad. The saddle scabbard is in rough shape and coming unstitched at the seams, but the leather is good and re-stitching it will take me an evening at most.

After looking the old saddle over and over, I offered the seller $350. He thought a few seconds and countered with $375. I smiled and told him I didn’t have a $5, so I’d give him $380 for bundle. He smiled again and we shook hands.

Old-fashioned Ox bow stirrups
Old-fashioned Ox bow stirrups

This evening, when I had a little time, I inspected both saddles a little closer. I had looked pretty well at the older saddle and learned nothing new this evening, except that the stirrup leathers are still in good condition and might be used on my Hamley saddle in a pinch. I also like the old-style tin-covered wood Ox-Bow stirrups. They are also in good, usable condition. The fleece has been replaced, but was done by a professional who did good work, but wasn’t too concerned about looks. He could have done a nicer job. This saddle needs a lot of work, but will be a good, solid saddle when I’m done. I’ll probably replace some leather and sell it to make back the purchase price of the deal.

Utahn Saddle Company maker's mark
Utahn Saddle Company maker’s mark

The newer saddle is in very good condition, made by the Utahn Saddle Company (I found the maker’s mark on the latigo keeper), that once billed itself as “The saddle maker’s saddle maker”. The company is gone now, but once was a good saddle maker out of Vernal, Utah. This saddle is a cutter, and has a broad set of swells, almost like a “form-fitter” tree, 4″ cantle, padded seat, wide Cheyeand wide, cutter-style covered stirrups.

Fleece on the newer saddle is in excellent shape
Fleece on the newer saddle is in excellent shape

The tree, as I mentioned, is rawhide-covered wood and is very solid and heavy. It came with a very nice mohair-blend cincha and a nice flank strap. The fleece is in excellent condition and is a thick, premium-style fleece. The leather is in very nice condition, but needs a little cleaning and oiling. This is a very solid and good saddle. I figure this saddle alone is worth about double what I paid for the whole bundle, even in its current condition.

Both saddles measure what would equate to “Semi-QH bars” and gullet width, so they will fit well on my fox trotters, with their tall withers and narrow backs.

Can’t wait to get the Utahn saddle on my horses. I think that’s the one I will be taking on my big pack trip.

It was a good day.