Fred P

Nice Josh, I really like it !

Thanks for the input folks... I know these topics can fuel debate. I hope I wasnt unclear , but I did not put that strap on the saddle, and when this happened I contacted my insurance agent to inquire about policies. Without the agent's details, he said there was nothing available to suit my needs. Years ago I was a partner in a trailer manufacturing business, and just for product liability insurance on the trailers was $ 1800 per month, in 1994. That didnt include liability insurance for the building , equiment, machinery or anything else, just 1 million in product liability. So thats why I asked about the insurance for our trade, meaning product liability. I do carry insurance for the very reasons Mr. Seidel speaks of. I also agree with Mr. Seidel about single ply billets not being acceptable. But I see them for sale in catalogs and western stores, and I see people buying them only looking at price, not safety. It was a lesson learned for my part as well. I have lost customers and sales, because I would not do what the customer wanted, specifically because they wanted me to half- a** something back together. I have run across more people who think that waving a majic wand over the saddle and 20 bucks later its fixed. I get many who want to share "their" leather work experience from a Tandy kit they had in school, and think a rivet here or a stitch there will fix their saddle. Billy also brings up an excellent point. There is little personal accountability for things anymore. When something happens its not always someone else's fault. When I ride, its my responsibility to check my tack and gear. And I do it, cause its my rear on top of the horse ! It always seems someone is looking to blame others for their own actions, or lack of. My favorites are the lawyers on TV commercials about car wrecks, telling people, ( I'll get you a check and make the others pay ") . I spoke with a saddle shop owner in North Texas who told me that he sees all kinds of slick things people try to get by him. When I asked him about my deal, his first question was do they trailer load a saddled up horse. The scratch resembled that kind of action, and that can be the start of the torn piece. There were a lot of variables in my case that I dont know, so its hard for me decide exactly what happened. I dont think lying was the case with me, but people can sometimes be downright deceitful, to get something out of someone else. I really appreciate the input and take no offense from any statements. Constructive insight will always help ! Things can also be " what - if " to death sometimes too..... What if mosquitos had machine guns !!!!! Fred By the way: I still have that strap hanging on the wall in my shop... as a reminder !

I had a situation along these lines that I would like to share and would appreciate any input. A couple of years ago a lady brought a saddle to me she had recently purchased used. It was basically a generic factory made saddle. Her request was to clean and oil the saddle and "just check it out for me". The saddle was in pretty decent shape, and I performed the cleaning and oil as she requested, and told her it looked like she made a good buy. Two weeks later she called me furious because the off strap broke while someone was riding. The rider fell to the ground. He was not serously injured, just banged up a little bit. When she returned to my shop, I inspected the strap and noted it was a single ply piece of what I thought was harness leather. It had a long scratch across the side of the strap. A hole had torn out right at the scratch. The owner yelled at me saying that I told her the saddle was "good to ride". She even brought family members, so she had support I guess. I tried to explain to her there is no way to gaurantee the strength of a piece of leather. At that point, no amount of explaining was going to do any good, they just wanted to take their anger out on me. To shorten the story, I replaced the strap at no cost, just to get them to leave, then waited nervously for them to sue me, as that is what they were threatening to do. They never did, thankfully. I am not a professional saddle maker, but want to learn ! I do repairs that I feel comfortable and competent to do. I wanted to share this story to seek input from some pros, but also to seek advice on how or if there is a financially feasable way to insure yourself for that liability. I know you could buy insurance for just about everything as long as you have the money ! Also do any of the full time makers provide some sort of disclaimer or something along those lines,, for repairs or new saddles. If I hear " ride at your own risk" would make me wonder about the quality of the work. I gotta admit I had many sleepless nights worrying about this and the person that got hurt. If anyone has a disclaimer they wouldn't mind sharing, I would appreciate studying one. Enough of my rambling ! and I apologize if I have hijacked the thread. Reading Joel's post made me think of this and I thought about sharing this, so hopefully some positive advice can help someone else. Joel, I would have done the same as you did for the same reasons. I dont want my name ( and conscience) on shoddy unsafe work ! Thanks for listening ! Sincerely, Fred