Putting On New Sheepskin?

[Matt Alsaker]

My wife picked up a couple old saddles at a local swap meet a few months back. The saddles needed some TLC, they were in relatively good condition, and they were basically giving them away. They needed some of the stitching fixed around the stirrups, on the fenders, and on the cantle. I stitched the stirrups and cantle by hand, then did the fenders on the Cobra Class 4 that I use to make holsters. On one of the saddles, the sheepskin needs to be replaced. I removed the skirts, cleaned everything up, and ordered the saddle shearling sheepskin. I should be able to use my Cobra to put the sheepskin onto the skirts, well maybe? I'm guessing the sheepskin has to be on the topside as I feed the pieces through the machine. That will mean I can't see the existing stitching holes in the skirt to line them up.

Can I stitch with the skirt on the topside and the sheepskin on the bottom or am I just dreaming and will I be stitching this by hand also?

Afterthought....I've been riding horses with my wife for 15 years. I've never owned a saddle with real sheepskin, they all had the synthetic stuff. I'll only buy saddles with the real sheepskin from now on. What a difference.

[CWR]

My wife picked up a couple old saddles at a local swap meet a few months back. The saddles needed some TLC, they were in relatively good condition, and they were basically giving them away. They needed some of the stitching fixed around the stirrups, on the fenders, and on the cantle. I stitched the stirrups and cantle by hand, then did the fenders on the Cobra Class 4 that I use to make holsters. On one of the saddles, the sheepskin needs to be replaced. I removed the skirts, cleaned everything up, and ordered the saddle shearling sheepskin. I should be able to use my Cobra to put the sheepskin onto the skirts, well maybe? I'm guessing the sheepskin has to be on the topside as I feed the pieces through the machine. That will mean I can't see the existing stitching holes in the skirt to line them up.

Can I stitch with the skirt on the topside and the sheepskin on the bottom or am I just dreaming and will I be stitching this by hand also?

Afterthought....I've been riding horses with my wife for 15 years. I've never owned a saddle with real sheepskin, they all had the synthetic stuff. I'll only buy saddles with the real sheepskin from now on. What a difference.

Matt,

The skirts go on top. You want your top stitches showing. Your cobra 4 will breeze through this. Its what its made for. I relined alot of saddles stitching by hand before I saved enough money to get a sewing machine. It really improved my hand stitching but its not fun.

Good luck,

CW

[Goldshot Ron]

Matt,

Just a couple quick questions: how many sheep skins did you buy? and, have you read the many comments on how to lay out your sheep skins in relationship to your skirts? Depending on the size of the skirts you'll need 10 square feet minimum and maybe larger hides for each set of skirts.

Good luck, Ron

[Matt Alsaker]

Thanks guys for the responses. I purchased one 10 sq ft sheepskin. It's a 15 inch saddle and the skirts easily fit on the piece of sheepskin. I've read a couple different thoughts on head of the sheep to the head of the horse and head to butt. I got my hands on a copy of Dusty Johnson's video, he does head to head. I guess I hadn't made up my mind yet on which way to go. My son is going to ride in the saddle on a small Arab mare we have. The mare has a really swayed back and developed her first ever saddle sore on her left hip during a long camping trip last fall. I read somewhere the butt of the sheepskin is the most dense, so I was going to put that toward the butt of the horse. This is a different saddle than the one that gave the mare a sore and we got a new saddle pad to help with the swayed back issue.

Guess I'm leaning toward head to head at this time.

[Goldshot Ron]

Matt,

The important part of skirt alignment would be to put the bottom edges toward the middle of the skin. This gives more padding under the lower part of the bars. Many of the old timers feel that the head to butt theory is better; but, what I've learned is "...what works best for you" counts.

On the saddle that sored up your mare, check the bottom of the skirts for nails and tie string bumps. It is not uncommon to find bent nails in mass produced saddles. Feel for these nails in the rear section of the bars under the cantle area.

Also, when installing the wool to the skirts, use rubber cement, not contact cement. Make sure that your skirt fillers are glued back in proper position to line up you stitch holes. And, don't forget to resew any bar pockets before you get too carried away with gluing on you wool ( I speak from experience).

Good luck, Ron

[Matt Alsaker]

Matt,

The important part of skirt alignment would be to put the bottom edges toward the middle of the skin. This gives more padding under the lower part of the bars. Many of the old timers feel that the head to butt theory is better; but, what I've learned is "...what works best for you" counts.

On the saddle that sored up your mare, check the bottom of the skirts for nails and tie string bumps. It is not uncommon to find bent nails in mass produced saddles. Feel for these nails in the rear section of the bars under the cantle area.

Also, when installing the wool to the skirts, use rubber cement, not contact cement. Make sure that your skirt fillers are glued back in proper position to line up you stitch holes. And, don't forget to resew any bar pockets before you get too carried away with gluing on you wool ( I speak from experience).

Good luck, Ron

Ron...regarding the skirt fillers....The skirts are thin, probably only 9/10 oz leather. The fillers were even worse, probably only 5/6 oz leather. My wife did not want to mess around with getting skirting leather and making new skirts, but I have some 8/9 oz leather laying around that I was going to use to make new skirt fillers. I was going to glue them into place, skive them so they are smooth, trim and burnish the edge along the original skirt, glue on the sheepskin (had not thought of using rubber cement, thanks for the tip), then use my Cobra Class 4 to sew through the holes on the original skirt into the filler and sheepskin. Does that sound like it will work?

[Goldshot Ron]

Sounds good. Cutting new fillers makes the job easier as far as lining up stitch holes. Go for it....