Making a saddle

[beijinho]

I’m working on a project where I’m building an English-style saddle, and I was wondering if anyone here might be willing to share any advice or patterns that could help me.

I’ve done some leatherwork before (mainly boots), but this is my first time attempting a full saddle. 

[TomE]

I have found precious few resources for English saddle making.  I have a few old books that are fun to read, but I've been told by a retired saddler that the described methods are out of date.  They are "Making a Saddle" (Council for Small Industries in Rural Areas), "To Handmake a Saddle" (JHL Shields), and "The Saddler" (Sidney A. Davis).  Abbey England has some of the supplies, but I see that most of the trees listed on their website are out of stock.  YouTube has some videos on English saddle making but they are a superficial overview. 

Let me know if you find anything useful.

[Northmount]

On 5/3/2025 at 1:10 PM, beijinho said:

building an English-style saddle

Moved your post to Saddle Construction.

[beijinho]

On 5/4/2025 at 1:39 AM, TomE said:

I have found precious few resources for English saddle making.  I have a few old books that are fun to read, but I've been told by a retired saddler that the described methods are out of date.  They are "Making a Saddle" (Council for Small Industries in Rural Areas), "To Handmake a Saddle" (JHL Shields), and "The Saddler" (Sidney A. Davis).  Abbey England has some of the supplies, but I see that most of the trees listed on their website are out of stock.  YouTube has some videos on English saddle making but they are a superficial overview. 

Let me know if you find anything useful.

Thanks so much for the info! I’ve already built the saddle tree, so now I’m looking for any help I can get with the leatherwork part. If you’re willing to share anything from those books, even small parts or tips, I’d really appreciate it. I’ll also keep looking and share anything useful I find too

[Mulesaw]

@beijinho The book " making a saddle" can be found here 🙂 

The first link is dead, but the moderator Northmount has fixed it, so the second last comment has got a pdf for the book.

Brgds Jonas

 

[beijinho]

On 5/4/2025 at 1:39 AM, TomE said:

I have found precious few resources for English saddle making.  I have a few old books that are fun to read, but I've been told by a retired saddler that the described methods are out of date.  They are "Making a Saddle" (Council for Small Industries in Rural Areas), "To Handmake a Saddle" (JHL Shields), and "The Saddler" (Sidney A. Davis).  Abbey England has some of the supplies, but I see that most of the trees listed on their website are out of stock.  YouTube has some videos on English saddle making but they are a superficial overview. 

Let me know if you find anything useful.

Will take a look thank you, 

I’ve already built the saddle tree, so now I’m looking for any help I can get with the leatherwork part. If you’re willing to share anything from those books, even small parts or tips, I’d really appreciate it. I’ll also keep looking and share anything useful I find too

 

[Mulesaw]

@beijinho There are some videos on Youtube with a saddlemaker from Pakistan or India, that makes an English style saddle from scratch. 
I can't remember the name of it at the moment, but I am pretty sure that I just searched for saddle making" and scrolled till I found them.

It isn't exactly an instructional video, but it still shows the processes and that is pretty much what I would need.

The link I provided is for this site (leatherworker.net), and it is a good book despite it isn't the most modern. If you read that and look at some videos you are pretty well off I'd say.

I don't know where you live, but if you can get your hands on an old saddle, you can learn a lot about how they are constructed by taking one apart. I got two worn out pony saddles a couple of years back that I intended on copying, but I haven't found the time so far.

What type of saddle are you planning on building? Dressage, jumping or combination?

Brgds Jonas