Building A Prototype Saddle For A Indian Company

[raftert]

How is everbody,

I have always gotten great advice from this forum, and I would like some of the great craftsmen opinion please. Last year I repaired six saddles for a Saddle and tack company that had a major problem with the rigging. The saddles were made in India and the trees were terrible. The rigging had pulled out of the trees because the trees were hollow, just a fiberglass shell! I was paid by the one of the owners of the company in India in person and I proceeded to tell him that these saddles were not good enough for decoration, how he could he endanger his customers with this crap. He paid me and said thank you, I never thought I would hear from them again.

This week they called me and want me to build a prototype saddle and the compensation is more than generous. They also want tree company names. They took my advice and are buying leather from Wickett and Craig. I was shown bridles made with the Wickett and Craig leather and they are very nice. He seems like his company wants to really improve the quality of his product.

Should I invest the time to put my name with this company and the stigma of India made tack or accept the compensation in hard times?

[horsewreck]

I found your post interesting because I have seen a few of these real sorry saddles that have been bought off the net. This new generation of junk saddles aren't designed to even sit on a horse, some have so much rocker in the bars they won't stay on a saddle rack. I wonder how they plan on making money exporting leather and trees from the US making saddles and sending them back here to sell? As far as a mass a produced tree goes Steele Saddle Tree comes to mind...... Jeff

[David Genadek]

How is everbody,

I have always gotten great advice from this forum, and I would like some of the great craftsmen opinion please. Last year I repaired six saddles for a Saddle and tack company that had a major problem with the rigging. The saddles were made in India and the trees were terrible. The rigging had pulled out of the trees because the trees were hollow, just a fiberglass shell! I was paid by the one of the owners of the company in India in person and I proceeded to tell him that these saddles were not good enough for decoration, how he could he endanger his customers with this crap. He paid me and said thank you, I never thought I would hear from them again.

This week they called me and want me to build a prototype saddle and the compensation is more than generous. They also want tree company names. They took my advice and are buying leather from Wickett and Craig. I was shown bridles made with the Wickett and Craig leather and they are very nice. He seems like his company wants to really improve the quality of his product.

Should I invest the time to put my name with this company and the stigma of India made tack or accept the compensation in hard times?

I tried it. I failed. I actually sent one of my trees over to them along with patterns and instructions and told them I would work closely with their people to help them learn how to build the saddles. It took for ever for them to get it done and when they finally got it done it was hardly recognizable as the saddle. I was dealing with the owner of the company and I suggested that I be able to actually work with his people and train them. However, the caste system over there is pretty rigid and he was the boss and it was the job of his production people to know how to do things so the idea of doing additional training just did not sink in. I was discussing this with a friend that spends a great deal of time in India working for a computer company and he explained it to me like this. "They can put in a vent cover for an air-conditioning duct on the wall and think they have air conditioning and not understand why it isn't working."

Another issue that came up was using sewing machines. This gentleman thought that was a strange idea as he needed to employ a lot of people and sewing machines would speed things up and would not allow him to employ as many people. But when I asked about the quality control he basically said that that was up to his production people and I got the impression that if somebody did not do it correctly they would get beat with a cane or something like that. I finally decided that as much as I have a fascination with India and I think they have a huge impact on the saddle market in the US for lower-cost goods and as such it would be nice if they had some reasonably designed product. However, I believe their inability to grasp the necessity of form to function makes the likelihood of properly designed equipment coming from India a remote possibility and as such I act way from the project.

China or Thailand would be a whole other story.

David Genadek