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.)
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.)