I have tried searching the forum to no avail. I might be chewed up and spit out for asking this, but has anyone ever used a leather repair kit on their saddle? Back story: I have a schooling monoflap that has holes in the thigh blocks. I bought it used and the damage was not disclosed. I filed a dispute and had the option of sending it back, but life really happened last week and I missed the date to ship by. It’s my back up saddle, i just don’t like the eye sore.
Just cover the hole with duct tape.
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That’d be a temporary fix and if it makes anyone feel better use duct tape similar in color to the saddle. I think I put duct tape once on some wear along the bottom of the front part of my saddle (like, the padding into the channel) years ago while looking for a place that could fix it and then waiting to get it there.
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The patches also tend to be a temporary fix. They don’t seem to hold up well.
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Could you take it too a shoe repair place and ask if they could sew or glue a patch over the holes?
I guess i could. I could also just have them repaired, but i’m trying to decide if it’s even worth it. It’s perfectly functional, it just trips my OCD.
If anyone does need a shoe/boot repair place generally there is (was? Haven’t used it in years and the two guys that run it have to be getting up there in years.) a GREAT one in Lexington, KY called Bluegrass Shoe and Boot (don’t think they’d do a saddle but they’d probably know someone who could, haha) - you can call them (be warned they have the more southern-sounding Kentucky accents and between that & background noise in the shop you can’t always understand them right away) and describe what the issue is and they’ll probably let you know if it’s something they can fix. You can even mail the shoes/boots to them to fix - did that with my one and only pair of tall boots (old-school black pull-on field boots that were hand-me-downs & in decent shape aside from some dry-rot around the sole causing the leather to separate from the soles) and I still have the boots and they still fit to this day (not that I wear them much being horseless - figure if I get positioned to have a horse or ride again, those boots have a lot of life in them yet and I’ll probably repurpose them for schooling even if I get something else for shows. I hate walking in them on foot, they barely have an insole so you feel every pebble it seems like, but the times I’ve ridden in them, I like them for that and they’re super old but clean up well and take polish nicely, I can get them to a mirror shine almost).
Anyway, the place is Bluegrass Shoe and Boot - I was in there in-person once years ago it’s in this hole in the wall shopping center in Lexington somewhere. I might still have a business card lying around and can post/DM contact info - I think the guy at the counter that day was telling me all about how they’d get people mailing in boots for repair from as far away as TX. It’s fairly affordable too, getting my tall boots repaired was $25 but this was probably 8 or 9 years ago so that’s maybe changed. I know I’ve also sent those guys a pair of paddock boots to get new heels put on before, too.
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How big are the holes? I have used super glue on small tears in knee rolls before and it held up great and wasn’t noticeable.
If I was being driven insane by a hole over a curved spot and needed an intermediate fix, I’d get some stretchy napa leather or soft sheep leather in the right color (ask your local upholsterer for a scrap) and use Barge leather cement or Shoe Goo to glue a patch on.
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Probably 3-4" - a little too big to superglue unfortunately
Good idea!
