Nobody ever makes exactly what I want so I decided to make my own. I had done a few mods to another saddle a while back but nothing this extensive so this was my first run at a total rebuild. I started with an old Whitman seat because for my hiney they are the most comfortable ever made. Like a lot of the U. S. saddles from the early 1900s, it had an English-esque seat with a Western cinch system and fairly minimal flaps. The wooden tree is very easy to work with in terms of placing new hardware and that’s important because I wanted a lot of attachment points. I stripped it down to just the seat and started afresh.
I took off the flaps and girth/quarter straps and made a new system of English billets. Instead of canvas or nylon webbing I opted for a double layer of milspec 1000d cordura stapled to the tree with a pneumatic staple gun. The billets are of heavy latigo leather and each stitch holding them to the webbing is individually tied so if one stitch breaks the stitch line doesn’t unravel.
Because I want a close contact feel, I didn’t make underflaps or knee rolls. Instead I made a minimalistic billet guard which is sewn to the webbing. I made new flaps and cut them a little more forward than the old ones. The flaps are covered in pigskin for grip and wear resistance.
I put attachment points pretty much everywhere I had room. There are two footman loops on the cantle and two on the cantle fan. There are two forward dees and two rear dees on each side; however, instead of the traditional D shape, I went with a rectangle because I have them on my M1936 Phillips Army officer saddle and I think they look classy. There’s also a footman loop on the pommel but its only function is to hold the pommel bags in place.
Of course, a trail riding saddle needs saddle bags and of course, nobody makes the ones I want, so I opted to make my own. I covered them in the same pigskin as the flaps because of course I did. To not do it would have been too easy. The pommel bags are in the style of the ones used by military officers in the heyday of the cavalry and the rear bags are pretty much a knock-off of the M1936 Phillips bags.
All in all, I thought it came out pretty well for a first effort. At present, I’m horse-less, so it will be a while before I can really try it out, but I’m pretty happy with the result.
