Saddle 007... Buy the Custom Saddle

Remember that custom saddle I teased in my last post? 

I started my seventh saddle with one goal: make it so cool someone would see it and have to buy it. I designed it for me—my size, my preferred tree—just in case it didn’t sell. I sketched out the tooling, picked the color combos, and dove in. The build was fast, surprisingly fast, especially considering it has the most tooling I’ve ever done. I think I was just that excited to see it come to life.

I built it on a 3B Visalia tree. If you’re not familiar, it’s similar to a Wade tree but with a couple differences. I had plans to enter it in the Pendleton Leather Saddle Competition in Oregon, so I buttoned it up and got it ready to ride.

Then came the big question: do I sell it or keep it?

After about a month of staring at it, I made the call. If I’m serious about being a saddle maker, I need to know my product—intimately. That means riding it, testing it, living in it.

The first ride? I was nervous. Something felt off. Maybe the stirrups weren’t perfectly even. I had my family and friends try it out (they all ride nice saddles), and every one of them said it felt great. Meanwhile, I’d been riding a Vickers—a low-end production saddle that’s pretty common. I thought it was fine. I didn’t ride enough to justify anything fancier.

Boy, was I wrong.

Once I switched to my custom saddle, I realized how crooked my old one had made me ride. My posture improved almost instantly. My knee pain? Gone on most rides. Even on an 11-mile trek, I didn’t feel it until the very end of the day.

Bottom line: you don’t have to buy one of my custom saddles—but you should absolutely ride a well-made custom saddle and support your local saddle maker. Production saddles just don’t cut it. Your knees, butt, back, and horse will thank you.