Dusting off my leather tools to attempt a saddle restoration

[ladyhawkjm]

I have not used these leather tools in over 30 years.  My dad used them frequently and made quite a few items for me as he taught me...
Because I was the only one who knew anything about them, they were left to me when he passed away some time ago...  I have kept them stored in their toolbox in my tack room..

I have a "Hereford Brand Yokum saddle" that I primarily use when working young/green horses that's in pretty rough shape.  When I went to replace the saddle strings, It appears they are run through the tree... I would love to replace the saddle strings, rework the current leather, tooling and reshading, cleaning up the edges where there is tooling.  I know I can do some of this after having removed the back jockey...  

Because I am not a saddlemaker and consider myself a greenie , I am a bit nervous about taking this down any further.  
I know I have two more screws to pull on each side of the pommel....  I'm just worried about tearing the seat more..
I'm pretty sure I won't be able to do the replacement I know is needed to the seat where it has been repaired on both sides and where it is still torn up...  I believe I really I need to find a saddlemaker for this portion of the restoration process, especially considering I plan to continue using the saddle... 

To those of you that have done restoration work or are saddlemakers,
I'd like to know, if I walked into your shop with a partial, would you be offended?
That would be the very last thing I want to do to someone with this skill set so would love some HONEST advice!  

Below are photos of the saddle I would like to restore and am still looking for more information regarding it's history prior to 1990 which was when it was given to me...

Thanks in advance!
 

[Northmount]

@ladyhawkjm Moved your post to Saddle Identification, Restoration & Repair  Should be more help available here.

[ladyhawkjm]

Thank you!

I have a second saddle, kept strictly in the house when not being used, and decided that I'm going to give this restoration a go...
The tree is in pretty good shape but it does have a strainer plate (metal insert) which I have read is somewhat controversial...  
I was actually more worried about redoing the seat and getting it back on the tree properly (The glueing process). 
After having watched a couple of the videos on youtube, I'm pretty sure I can do this, just might take me longer....   
The one important thing for me is that it's my saddle and not someone elses.... ~  Hoping I don't screw this up ~