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Need Some Advice About What to do With a Broken Western Saddle.

2K views 24 replies 6 participants last post by  Kali Brooks 
#1 · (Edited)
Hi Y'all! (Goodness, I just love saying that!) ;)

I bought a western saddle, It's beautiful, but the tree is broken badly.
I've included pictures of the saddle as well as the breaks.

I've researched poorly made saddles, such as when the tree is made out of cheapy materials, and there is a layer of paper instead of a second layer of leather. Also sometimes there is really thin fleece.

I don't know the material of the tree, but there are two layers of leather. The stitching is coming out between layers though.

So my real question is what do I do?

Do I rescue this saddle (I paid $25 dollars for it because I got it in a group of tack that someone needed out.) and pay the near 300 dollars it would take to ship it to Precision to get it fixed, or make it into a backyard swing?
http://www.precisionsaddletree.com/pdf/PST-PriceList.pdf


This is a no-brand saddle as far as I can tell, but the tooling is beautiful, maybe someone will recognise its maker. (I checked the latigo holder, behind the cantle, and on the fenders but found no sign of identification. Closest thing to a mark was a shape on the horn that I will include in the pictures.)

I am also really tempted to take it apart to see the full damage, but I'm not sure if I could put it back together...

Any advice is appreciated!
(Also, someone has taken it apart before because there are a lot of staples in it, like from a staple gun.)
 

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#2 ·
Have you taken it to a local saddle repair shop, asked them how much they would charge? Sometimes it's quite affordable.. Call them ahead of time, make sure they're not too busy, have time to review your saddle while you're there?
 
#3 ·
Thanks Kyleen! I brought it to someone who works with saddles on the side, but said it'd be around 600 in all to fix up. I could do the dirty work myself, but I have none of the tools.

I will have to look into the saddle repair shop, because I don't know of any locally!
 
#4 ·
Oh, and when I was at my local shop, looking for a saddle, they had a saddle there in worse repair than this one is.. They let me watch them take it apart and start to work on it.. Like yours, the leather work is really pretty, but it needed some fixing up.. Hope you can get yours to be a dream saddle, get a tree that fits your horse nicely put into it, and have them slap on some new fleece! I want photos if you can get it fixed!! Please!
 
#6 ·
With the tree broken like that, it is not worth fixing. It won't even make a decent swing unless you reinforce the break in the middle.

I did see a saddle that had the cantle busted that a young teen mounted on a bicycle frame just for laughs. The gal that owned the saddle let him have it in exchange for a box of Cheez-It crackers. Her favorite, it seems.
 
#7 ·
Haha boots! That's an awesome story! Yeah, If we made it into a swing we would put it on a round log, so it was supported.

Thanks for the link Kyleen! That gives me a lot of options! California isn't as horsey as I'd like, but I'll be in Oregon over the summer and maybe I could get it looked at there! (Google is a wondrous thing isn't it?)
 
#9 ·
Yep! I'm new to the horse world, everything on this forum is new. About to go to one of my first horseback riding lessons here a bit. I have a journal up and running here on the forums if you're curious about me. I won't bore the others with the story though..

The leather work on that saddle and leather still looks pretty good to me, but you would know better than I do. There's a school here called OSU Olkmulgee. They teach students to work with leather. One of the projects they have to do is make a new saddle and repair an old one.. So that might be an option for you. Donate your saddle to a school student, let them fix it for you as part of their home work.. Another idea.. I sure as heck would like to see them try to fix that broken tree! hahahaha
 
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