I see this thread is a few years old,
I started working with leather about a year ago. on one of my orders to Tandy they had this saddle kit on sale so I bought it and when I opened the kit and viewed the instructions I realized that my skills were not good enough to complete it so I put it away for another time. I watched a few videos, read some books, practiced a lot on mostly nothing, made a lot of scraps and finally one day I realized I had developed enough skills to maybe be able to complete the saddle kit, so I got it out and finally, with much difficulty and determination I completed the saddle kit. Here is a picture of the finished saddle.