Why Is Woolskin Put On The Underside Of A Western Saddle?

[buckaroo93]

I personally think that woolskin looks better then foam covered with chap leather but some guys like the chap leather better because its easier to clean. Does the chap leather hold or not hold the saddle pad as good as wool?

[BondoBobCustomSaddles]

Well Joel, with the answers from the likes of Troy, Jim, Andy, Steve and Bruce, I think you got what you you were asking for, real answers from guys who take their trade seriously and have a lot of experience to draw upon. You can't do any better than advice and comments from them . They tell it like it is.

Have a good day!

Bob

[GrampaJoel]

BondoBobCustomSaddles

Bob I posted this thread almost a year ago.

It appears that someone found this thread and posted to it instead of asking a new question.

Oh BTW, yes I did get my answer.

A big thanks to Troy, Jim, Andy, Steve and Bruce.

Thanks

Joel

[Mechanical Cowgirl]

I know I'm jumping in late, but maybe we could keep this going a bit? I think I remembre reading somewhere that folks where saying real sheepskin under the skirts helped with temperature and shock absorption. Has anyone done any tests with this? If you have a good pad on your critter, is there any difference at all between synthetic, real, foam, ect? If the fleece is just to keep the saddle pad from sliding around then why don't you line the skirts with the hook side of velcro? Your pad sure wouldn't go anywhere :-)

I just had a saddle in that had fleece in good condition (I thought) it was just all the stitching that had rotted out. I started handstitching it all back together using all the original holes, I got about a foot done and gave the fleece a little tug and it all split down my stitchline so I ended up refleecing the whole thing. So, that to me is a drawback to real fleece, you can't exactly condition it like you do the rest of your saddle, plus bugs get into it and mice like it for their nests.

If you are relying on the fleece to give you cusioning, then synthetic fleece isn't that great, but it is easy to use and econimical and an accepted lining (to most saddle buyers I think it is safe to say).

With all the advancements in synthetic fibers and materials, shouldn't there be something better than fleece out there now anyway? If fleece was really great for controling temperature, then wouldn't you see anthletes going around in sheepskin clothes?

And, I'm not 100% convinced that the skirts do much to distrubute the weight of the tree or the rigging for the horse. Leather is flexible, it will do a little, but is it significant enough to warrant the weight of the skirts added to the saddle? So I'm thinking you could do a saddle with no skirts, drop plate type rigging and velcro under the tree and be setting pretty on a very lightweight saddle :-)

...sorry for the ramble at the end...

[BIGGUNDOCTOR]

My question is about woolskin, I always knew it a sheepskin, and wool as the fibers that had been removed from the sheep. Unless there is a critter that is called a wool that I don't know about

In regards to a stripped down saddle. who needs a saddle at all when you can ride bareback?

[Billy H]

Howdy Folks,

Well since this thread was resurrected, thought I would add a little interesting tid-bit that I came across.

Chas Weldon did some restoring work on a Will James saddle built by Jack Connolly. As Chas Weldon tells the history of this particular saddle--- Will James had the Connolly Brothers build this saddle with Carpet lining because of his distaste of the Sheep-Man. What I found really interesting was how Jack Connolly used "Binding" to wrap the edges of the carpet to the skirt. Beautiful craftmanship for sure!

If your interested-- Keith Valley filmed some of the work being done by Chas Weldon. He has the video on YouTube. You can also find it on Keith Valleys website.

Billy

[rdl123]

I know of a saddle maker up here in Saskatchewan who uses no sheepskin...The skirts are made up with the bottom side piece rough out...He runs the grain like you do sheepskin to keep the pad in place...And this guy was a PFRA manager for years and rode his own saddles so it obviously worked for him...He just roughs up the bottom rough out side every once in a while and had no issues with balankets or pads slipping...A friend rides one of his saddles on his own ranch and says it sits really well on a horse...specially for roping....Wonder if maybe the lack of the sheepskin layer helps there...

[Love4ever]

On 3/7/2011 at 1:32 PM, Billy H said:

Howdy Folks,

Well since this thread was resurrected, thought I would add a little interesting tid-bit that I came across.

Chas Weldon did some restoring work on a Will James saddle built by Jack Connolly. As Chas Weldon tells the history of this particular saddle--- Will James had the Connolly Brothers build this saddle with Carpet lining because of his distaste of the Sheep-Man. What I found really interesting was how Jack Connolly used "Binding" to wrap the edges of the carpet to the skirt. Beautiful craftmanship for sure!

If your interested-- Keith Valley filmed some of the work being done by Chas Weldon. He has the video on YouTube. You can also find it on Keith Valleys website.

Billy

Do you have a link to his YouTube video and his website im very interested as I'm fixing up a saddle and trying to figure out what to use to replace the fleece on the underside.

[Burkhardt]

11 hours ago, Love4ever said:

Do you have a link to his YouTube video and his website im very interested as I'm fixing up a saddle and trying to figure out what to use to replace the fleece on the underside.

That post was made over 12 years ago.