Hello forum.
I wandered in to learn techniques to dye leather - and then saw the mighty saddle and tack section. I was so excited, it became the highlight of my weekend. Yes, even surpassed thanksgiving. I am an exercise rider by trade, and trying to finish up my degree in Wildlife Research and Management in Central WI. I also have a mild case of saddle addiction, oh, its actually quite serious I guess. I have skills in the ability to find really cheap saddles, often 10-40 years old. I do basic repairs and good oiling and sell them off for more then double what I paid. I've recently gotten adventurous with my repairs, more recently attempting to replace knee rolls in a free crappy ebay dressage saddle, but since it had lived its life in a moldy basement - the cardboard "leather" tore as I was tightening stitches. Which only means I should gut it and see whats inside right? Did I mention that I study the insides of wildlife, its only natural that I want to figure out how the inside looks.
I wanted to join this forum to learn about doing saddle repair, on a college budget.
Oh, and how to dye leather - my father is a book binder, and has a small treasure trove of leather dye powder.
Oh, and how I should go about gutting this saddle in order to best learn from it.
oh, I may just like learning... that might be why this girl is still in college for so long... ohhhh debt, how I like you too.