This morning I had one of the most pleasant conversations I’ve had in a long time.

I called Bork Saddlery Hardware to get some specific information before I order some saddle horns and a pair of Decker pack saddle arches. I needed to talk to Mr. Bork, so he would know exactly what I needed in saddle horns for the saddle trees I’m working on.

Mr. Bork casts his own hardware. I was especially taken with the bronze cast pack saddle arches, which he offers in both a “modified” version, which will accept both Decker and crossbuck style paniers, as well as original-style Decker arches. Very pretty. Rod Nikkel, of Nikkel Saddle Trees, uses these on his Decker pack saddle  trees.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What I expected to be a short conversation turned into a chat that lasted most of 45 minutes, I guess. We talked about saddle horns, of course, then we talked about saddles for a while. Turns out Mr. Bork used to build saddles himself. He said one of his saddles recently turned up in South Carolina. The owners saw the maker’s mark and called him to get information about it. Mr. Bork said the saddle was still in excellent condition after more than 50 years. He was obviously proud of his saddles, but he hasn’t made saddles in quite a while.

We talked about old-time saddles and how they were made to fit slimmer and less muscular horses than we normally see nowadays. We talked about restoring and rebuilding old saddles. He was a wealth of information about restoring life to old leather. In his younger days he would often take in old saddles as partial payment for other services, or as trade-ins on a new saddle. Then he would take the old saddles and rebuild them for resale. He once took in a whole load of old saddles from a ranch in British Columbia, Canada, rebuilt them and sent them back to the ranch for $25 apiece.

Here’s what he would do. Normally the stirrup leathers were shot, so in the trash they went. He would then cut new stirrup leathers from strips of leather from industrial machinery power belts he would purchase at a great price from a mining company in Alaska. They were made of very heavy leather, about 18 inches wide, and made excellent stirrup leathers, once he was able to get them straightened out!

He would also remove the skirts, which were normally in pretty poor shape, remove the fleece, and clean them up. He would put them in a bathtub with warm water and a bit of laundry detergent, and apply elbow grease with a stiff brush. By the time he was done, the water normally looked like chocolate milk. After cleaning, while the skirts were still wet, he would press them between heavy wood planks and set a heavy electric motor on the stack. He would take them out every day and pour sperm oil (it was cheaper than neatsfoot oil) over them. He said the secret, though, was that mold would form on the leather. He would clean off the mold every day and apply more oil. In his opinion, the reason the leather was so stiff and dry was that “it was dead”. The living mold infused the leather with life. As the leather dried, it would become as soft and pliable as new leather. I may have to give that a try.

Sometimes he would encounter a saddle with a broken horn. He would cut off the broken horn, make a new one, then cover it with rawhide and a latigo wrap. For a worn out cantle binding, he would remove the stitching and the old binding, then trim the old leather down a bit, making a regular cantle out of a Cheyenne Roll, and replace the binding with rawhide. He said it would reduce the cantle height by about a half-inch, but worked fine. Because he was selling these saddles to people who were looking for “economical” saddles, he would replace the fleece with thick felt. A lot of work for $25, seems to me.

Then the conversation turned to horses and pack horses, and pack trips. I told him about my plan to ride from Mexico to Canada, and my desire to make my own equipment. I told him about my efforts to plan a route and the hundreds of trails to choose from. He seemed genuinely excited about the trip. He encouraged me to document the trip as well as I can, so others coming behind may be able to follow the same trail. I told him I was doing my best and intend to use GPS and other means to document the trail as I go. We mused at what might have been, had Lewis and Clark had a GPS.

Somehow the conversation got around to how horses are healthy for people and that some people are now using horses for therapy for emotionally and physically handicapped people. We talked about that for a while. We decided that horses and dogs are probably more qualified as therapists than some of the people that claim that profession. I was captivated as he told me about his dog and how she waits for him every morning and is always excited to go with him. Seems we both share a love of horses and dogs.

We got back to saddles and saddle horns then. He asked whether I would consider a horn off an antique saddle, since I was rebuilding and duplicating one. He said he still has quite a few from old saddles he has taken apart over the years. I told him that as long as it was similar in shape and size, I would be happy with that. After all our conversation, I told him to take a look at the pictures of the broken saddle horn that I had previously emailed to him and to make his best judgment as to what I needed. I told him I’m sure I would be happy with that.

He’ll call me back once he has checked his stock of antique saddle horns. I’ll place an order for two pony saddle horns and a horn for the old Visalia saddle tree I’m duplicating. I’ll also order a pair of Decker pack saddle arches. I’m sure I’ll be happy with all of them. I certainly was happy with the conversation.

That was the best experience I’ve ever had with Internet shopping!