I have been doing some research on saddle making and saddle fitting lately; since I am determined to work with leather and fascinated by saddles and horse tack, I guess it was only natural that I gravitated to this area. At any rate, my plan is to gradually teach myself (with the aide of as many books and lessons as possible with my budget) the basics of proper leather working and saddle making skills. So far this is what I learned:
  • There is A LOT to know about making saddles before you can ever think about making one.
  • There are terms for different amounts of tooling on a Western Saddle:
    • Full Tool: fork, cantle, skirt, jockey, and fender are all tooled.
    • 7/8 Breed: fork, cantle, skirt, and fender are tooled.
    • 3/4 Breed: fork, cantle and skirt are tooled, fender and jockey are partially tooled.
    • 5/8 Breed: fork, cantle, and fender are tooled.
    • 1/2 Breed: fork, cantle, and skirt are tooled.
    • 1/4 Breed: fork, cantle, and part of skirting are tooled.
    • Border: Only the border of each part is tooled.
  • I am looking into more detail on tree types; here are some of the more usual ones, though:
    • Full Quarter: 7" Gullet
    • Regular Quarter: 6.75" Gullet
    • Semi Quarter: 6.5" Gullet
    • Arabian: Shorter bars and skirts, bars more curved, set wider
    • Gaited: bars narrower, have more flare at shoulders to allow movement, skirt shorter, gullet higher
    • Mule: shorter, flatter bars, shorter skirts, usually double rigged
  • Some saddle tree types (still have more to look up here as well):
    • Wade Tree: slick fork, sits close to horse, horn built for dallying, bars have more surface area, deep seat, higher cantle, double rigging, stirrups hung directly under saddle
    • Flex Tree: solid fork and cantle, bars are made from a flexible material such as rubber
    • Treeless: soft substance instead of bars
  • Some Tree Materials:
    • Fiberglass: wood tree covered with fiberglass
    • Rawhide: wood tree covered with rawhide, better if sewn and not stapled
    • Ralide: a cheaper, plastic formed tree
I am going to continue to try to learn as much about saddles and tack as possible; I have a leather braiding book coming in the mail (it's a start on tack!), and my next goal is to start learning more about fitting saddles. Also, I am going to practice my tooling and leather techniques on smaller items, like wallets, while I build my experience and gather the tools that I am going to need eventually to make a saddle. I will try to post pics of my work, as well as of the new dog that we just adopted from the dog pound! (Her name is diesel)