Saddle horn broken- can it be fixed?

[chebeau]

Hey!

All input is appreciated. I recently sold a lovely older Crates barrel saddle. Since I have not shipped a western saddle before I had UPS pack it professionally and shipped out to Utah. Well, they put no protection around the saddle horn. From the looks of the box and pics sent by the buyer, it had a rough trip. The top of the saddle horn is snapped. The leather wrap appears to be holding it on now. Thankfully I did insure it. I am simply sick as it is a nice piece of tack.

Anyway, can this be fixed to be safely used? What is the cost? Who does it? Thanks!

Happy riding,
Jessie and the Stinky Pony aka Bosco

[Bluey]

A saddle maker can take that horn out and bolt/screw another on.
Don’t know how much they may charge, depends on how it is attached, how much they may have to take the saddle apart.

They may be able to weld it back together …

[gaitedincali]

Yes, it can be fixed.

To totally replace the horn and have it look good it’ll probably be in the $250-400 range. A lot depends on the tree type - is it just a metal screw-on horn, is the horn actually a part of the tree, are they going to have to build up and re-laminate parts, etc. Any good saddle maker can do it, look local to keep shipping costs down.

Or, if you don’t mind a bit of a jury-rigged fix and the damage is limited to just the horn cap, unwrap the horn, screw the cap down and re-wrap. Obviously this doesn’t work for roping saddle and the horn won’t be as strong, but it’s a cheaper fix. Might find someone to do it for under $100.

[Bluey]

I was thinking, the best way would be to contact the maker and see what they tell you.
They may do it very reasonably, being their saddle.

Barrel saddles generally don’t have horns wrapped in rawhide along with the tree itself, like a working/roping saddle does.

[chebeau]

Thank you all for all the information. I have emailed Crates to see what they can tell me. I am still waiting for UPS to pick the saddle up from the buyer and get it back to me.

Happy riding,
Jessie and the Stinky Pony aka Bosco

[Bluey]

As mentioned above, it may just be the leather that came apart, nothing wrong with the horn itself.
That would be much easier to fix.