LindaF Report post Posted January 30, 2010 I ran across a rare animal at an auction about three years ago - an offside side saddle. Most side saddles have the pommels on the near side. A very few were reversed so the lady's legs rested on the offside of the horse. This saddle was from the middle of the 1890's. The leather was so brittle and "burned" that there was nothing to save other than to use it for patterns and to copy the tooling and carving on it. The tree was sound - rawhide covered and at 19 inches slightly longer than the "standard" 18" tree. (Side saddle trees are measured differently than astride saddles!) Most Goodnight side saddles have full double skirts which this one lacked. Most also had simple border tooling since they were utilitarian working saddles. This saddle had some fan-shaped corner carving. The saddle is double rigged. We salvaged the cold iron rigging rings and covered by hand with leather like they were originally. We believe the original seat was deer skin or something similar, so that's we replaced it with cream-colored deer skin. The leaping head (pommel on the side) was crushed when I purchased it. Most likely it was dropped at some point in it's life. We slipped the pommel's cover, heated the internal metal tang and bent it back into shape to match the shape of my leg. It fits some fairly broad horses in my barn. I wish it could speak to tell its stories! I hope you enjoy these pictures. Linda Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
tonyc1 Report post Posted January 30, 2010 I ran across a rare animal at an auction about three years ago - an offside side saddle. Most side saddles have the pommels on the near side. A very few were reversed so the lady's legs rested on the offside of the horse. This saddle was from the middle of the 1890's. The leather was so brittle and "burned" that there was nothing to save other than to use it for patterns and to copy the tooling and carving on it. The tree was sound - rawhide covered and at 19 inches slightly longer than the "standard" 18" tree. (Side saddle trees are measured differently than astride saddles!) Most Goodnight side saddles have full double skirts which this one lacked. Most also had simple border tooling since they were utilitarian working saddles. This saddle had some fan-shaped corner carving. The saddle is double rigged. We salvaged the cold iron rigging rings and covered by hand with leather like they were originally. We believe the original seat was deer skin or something similar, so that's we replaced it with cream-colored deer skin. The leaping head (pommel on the side) was crushed when I purchased it. Most likely it was dropped at some point in it's life. We slipped the pommel's cover, heated the internal metal tang and bent it back into shape to match the shape of my leg. It fits some fairly broad horses in my barn. I wish it could speak to tell its stories! I hope you enjoy these pictures. Linda Looks great! Tony. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Denise Report post Posted January 30, 2010 Looks very nice Linda. Do you have pictures of the tree totally stripped down? It looks to have a rise in the seat. I'm told that is not wanted now, but horses still have withers. Just curious as to how they used to build the trees. Thanks for posting! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
LindaF Report post Posted January 31, 2010 (edited) Looks very nice Linda. Do you have pictures of the tree totally stripped down? It looks to have a rise in the seat. I'm told that is not wanted now, but horses still have withers. Just curious as to how they used to build the trees. Thanks for posting! I didn't - never thought there would be much interest at the time. All the antique western side saddles have a rise to give room for the withers. Ditto for the older English side saddles that lack a cutback. For English riding you do want a flatter seat to allow you to get forward over fences. Those saddles have a cutback to accommodate the horses withers and still allow a flatter seat. Slightly uphill really isn't a problem for western. You really need the slight uphill seat western side saddle for the security with working cattle. A few antique western side saddles here even have a grab strap on the side without your legs for security when the horse got cow-y. Linda Edited January 31, 2010 by LindaF Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Denise Report post Posted January 31, 2010 Thanks for the information, Linda! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
GAP Report post Posted February 1, 2010 Looks like a very nice job Linda! I've never tryed a sidesaddle yet... one of these days! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Kate Report post Posted February 2, 2010 Beautiful work, Linda - and I'll bet it rides nicely too. Where did you source the deerskin for the seat? I am hoping I don't need to, but may have to replace the cream doeskin on the old sidesaddle I am currently working on. I bought the fiberglass stuff to remake the tree today.... stinky shop coming up! Kate Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
