Western Trail Rider

10/30/2024

I made this pair of chinks for a client. I was quite pleased with the performance of my new Tipmann Boss stitcher. There is a little bit of a learning curve, but it sure saves on the hands and saves a lot of time.

These are heavy-duty chinks, made of 5/6oz chrome tanned leather. I added pockets at the client's request (I also have them on mine), along with tooled belt shields and appointments and brass/silver conchos. I'm quite pleased with them.

09/29/2024

I took my daughter, Amy, on her first deer hunt last week. I have a muzzleloader buck deer tag for the West Wasatch area. We decided to try the Diamond Fork area, as it is pretty close to home.

We were disappointed. The deer population density in the area was so low that we wouldn't have been able to fill the proverbial "thimble" with the deer sign we saw in two days of hard riding and hunting. We tried both sides of Wanrhodes Creek and Monk Hollow and saw a grand total of 5 doe (in one group) at the end of the second day as we headed back to the trailer.

However, we both counted it a very successful hunt, particularly the part where we cooked "Tarzan steaks" on the coals and spent a wonderful evening just talking around the camp fire. The change of colors was in full swing and the weather was clear (although very hot). The night sky was beautiful, as well.

Now, had I been drawn for the muzzleloader bull elk hunt, we could have scored three times! Oh well.

09/15/2024

I love my horse!

This is a short video of my MFT gelding, Chief, helping me start a skittish mare on packs. This 7 year old MFT mare, in her first encounter with a pack horse, caused a wreck that resulted in a serious injury to the owner. He brought her to me for training, so she will safely lead a pack horse and carry packs herself.

I started by putting her under saddle for a couple days, just to get to know her. Then I put my hard panniers on Chief with about 20 pounds of old horse shoes in each side, to make noise, and put him and the mare together loose in the round pen for a few minutes. Chief knew exactly what I wanted him to do.

Chief has been my invaluable training assistant with this mare. His calm nature has reassured her and helped her to work through her fears as we progress through her training.

I should finish up with this mare this week, turning her into a safe and competent lead horse as well as a good pack horse. I'll post a short blog post about this mare's pack training on my website. I'll link it here.

08/16/2024

Finally got back to doing a little leather work. I am just about finished with a pair of pommel bags for my good friend Derek Habel. My new mechanical stitcher saved me a lot of time and effort. Although I enjoy hand stitching, it’s tedious and time consuming.

06/30/2024

Ha! I finally pulled the trigger on a Tipmann Boss manual leather stitcher! I have been wanting one for about 12 years now and I finally got one. While I actually enjoy hand stitching and find it rather relaxing, this gadget will cut my stitching time on a pair of saddle skirts down from about 8 hours to about 15 minutes! I will be able to use it for stitching saddle skirts, rifle scabbards, handgun holsters, pommel bags, knife sheaths, chaps and chinks, and a host of other things. It should allow me to complete more projects in a much shorter time frame. I have had to turn away a number of requests, simply because I didn't have the time or energy to get the stitching done. This stitcher should help immensely. It's not the thing a professional leather shop would have, but for a hobbiest/amateur like myself, it's going to be a real game changer!

I will mount it on a 11X14 board, which I will clamp to my work bench when in use and then store it in an out of the way corner on my cabinet top the rest of the time. Just the thing I need for my cramped workshop.

I'm pretty excited to get it set up and stitching!

06/30/2024

My daughter Amy and I took a very pleasant ride on Friday up in Diamond Fork Canyon, above Spanish Fork, Utah. It's always pleasant for me to take my kids and grandkids out for a ride. I have two trustworthy and capable horses and I can trust them with my loved ones and friends even in the most difficult terrain and sketchiest of trails. Amy and I enjoyed our ride.

We rode 9.1 miles up a trail of which I don't know the name. The trailhead is located north of the Monk Hollow parking lot, across Diamond Fork road. It is foot or horse traffic only, as currently the gate is locked and off-road vehicles are prohibited. Nice ride.

05/13/2024

So, now I'm back to working on my pony saddle, which I started and set aside several years ago. The tree is from the saddle I learned to ride on over 55 years ago. I started it for my grandkids, but they might be too big to ride it by the time I'm done!

05/05/2024

I just uploaded my blog post on the saddle I just completed....then sold. It's a long, detailed one, so grab a DP and take a look.

Somewhere around 15 years ago, I decided I would like to learn to make saddles. I began to acquire tools of the trade and bought a number of books on the subject, including the full three-volume set, The Stohlman Encylopedia of Saddle Making, which I have found to be a wonderful resource. I started....

05/02/2024

Well, that was quick!

I sold my saddle today. A lucky young man will receive it as a birthday gift from his dad for his 16th birthday! His horse is a little broader in the shoulders and has less prominent withers. The saddle fits her well.

Happy birthday Parley!

So, I guess I'll be ordering a tree and some leather to make a saddle for myself...with my horse in mind this time.

04/30/2024

Well, some good news and some bad news.

I made the necessary adjustments to my saddle today and am very pleased with it. I went out to give it a try on my horse. It doesn't fit my horse. Dangit!

There's not enough clearance between Chief's withers and the gullet. Everything else fits well, just not enough gullet height. Chief is pretty narrow in the shoulders and Trooper is even narrower, so I need a saddle with a couple more inches of gullet height and/or a little narrower between the saddle bars. It sits a little low on his withers, which makes it sit a little high in the back. Oh well. I knew that was a possibility, since this saddle was originally intended for a different horse.

The saddle sits well and feels good. It weighs in at 32 lbs (without cinch), which is close to 10 pounds less than my Utahn stock saddle and somewhat less than my Hamley ranch saddle. I was quite pleased with that, as I was aiming for a light, but heavy-duty saddle. I think I hit that mark pretty well.

So, with all that said, I will advertise the saddle for sale. If any of you are interested, let me know. It will go up on KSL Classifieds this weekend.

To restate the details, this is a saddle of my own design and make, patterned after stock saddles of around the 1880s. It is a half-seat with Sam Stagg rigging set at the 7/8 position, rigged for a rear cinch, round skirts. Leather covered cinch rings, brass conchos, latigo saddle strings, D-rings for breast strap attachment, a D-ring behind the cantle for crupper attachment, D-rings on each side to hang a rifle scabbard, 2" brass rings on the front conchos for gear attachment or to carry an axe. Leather is #1 Herman Oak, oak tanned leather. The tree is a 16" Timberline Wade, made by Timberline Saddle Trees, Vernal, Utah (it is their trademark saddle tree), with a 4" wood post horn and 5" cantle. The cantle has a 2" relief around the top of the cantle, so it doesn't hit you in the back as you canter along. The seat length measures 17" to the top of the cantle binding, but sits like a 16", due to the relief I mentioned. Real wool fleece on the hand-stitched skirts. The stirrups are rawhide covered wood stirrups.

04/28/2024

Well, I have put in some hours on my saddle this weekend. I still have a couple small adjustments to make before I can try it out, but it's pretty much finished.

It is my own design, borrowing from the stock saddles of the late 1800s, with the Sam Stagg rigging and the half-seat, but the tree is a more modern style Timberline Wade, made by Timberline Saddle Trees, Vernal, Utah. It has a 16" seat length, a 5" cantle height, and a 4" wood post horn. I had them make it with bars for a gaited horse. I actually started the saddle for a friend of mine, but it turned out to be too small for him, so it's mine now. I'm looking forward to breaking it in next week.

I added a few accessories for my own convenience and taste. I installed 1" D-rings for attaching a breast strap, which can be seen just showing from under the front jockies, as well as two more (one on each side) showing just behind the rear cinch rings under the rear jockies, which is useful for hanging a rifle scabbard. I also added the 2" brass rings to the front conchos, which I often use for carrying an axe or hanging other gear from on my pack trips. I made my own saddle strings and leather conchos. The skirts and cantle binding are hand-stitched.

I'm going to have to make an adjustment to the front rigging, as it partially covers the front concho with the brass ring. Also, the position of the front cinch ring interferes with the movement of the stirrups. I think can move the front jockeys from under the rigging to over the rigging. That should free up the front concho rings and the stirrup movement at the same time. We'll see. I'll get to that on Monday.

Meanwhile, I sure like the way it looks. I was going to apply another coat of dark brown stain to the stirrup leathers to bring them closer to the color of the rest of the saddle, but I began to like the color variation more and more. I finally decided to leave it as is.

I have done quite a few saddle repairs and completely renovated a couple saddles, but this is my first effort at building a saddle from scratch. I'm quite pleased with the way it turned out.

04/26/2024

I finally got back to working on my saddle! I set it aside a couple years ago, because I wasn't confident about doing the cantle binding and I never got back to it. Well, last week I decided it was high time I finished that saddle! So, I have been working the last week on preparing the cantle for the binding and today I finally stitched it on.

The cantle binding is probably the most difficult part to do and get right on a saddle and it's surely the most noticeable thing if it's not done right. This one came out "OK", but my inexperience shows. The front looks ok, but the back looks pretty poor. The stitches on the back of the binding are nowhere near straight and even. Most modern saddlers hide the stitches on the back of the binding by various means, but a sure sign of an excellent saddle maker is straight and even stitches on the back of the cantle binding. An excellent saddle maker I am not....yet.

So, I have a few parts to be stained and finished and final assembly. I hope to be riding this saddle next week!

04/21/2024

Grandkids and good horses: Two of the best things in life!

04/05/2024

I just got back from an excellent four day trip in the south-central Utah area, during which myself and four buddies did some nice rides. We rode Wild Horse Wash, Chute Canyon, Pleasant Creek, and Losee Canyon/Casto Canyon Loop.

Here's a 3+ minute video from our Chute Canyon ride.

Now that I have my new laptop, I'll get full blog posts and YouTube videos out in the next week or so. Watch for them.

03/12/2024

For those of you still waiting and wondering why I haven't yet got the posts up on my website and YouTube channel about my recent rides, well, my laptop died last week and I just got my new Macbook Pro ordered, so give me another week or so and I'll get those posts up with all pertinent details, so you can find the places, too!

02/28/2024

Today Derek and I spent the day bushwhacking in the Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada. It’s one of our favorite playgrounds for horse riding. We had an “epic” ride! Last year we tried to find a route through one canyon over the ridge south of Baseline Mesa to the North Fork Wash, but were unsuccessful. Today we found a route! What a ride! Definitely not for the faint of heart!

Watch for a post about it on my westerntrailrider website and a crazy good video on my Western Trail Rider YouTube channel. I hope to get both out next week. I will also post the track on my Western Trail Rider Ramblr page.

02/26/2024

My buddy Derek Habel and I enjoyed a very challenging and enjoyable ride today on a trail in the Blue Range Primitive Area in eastern Arizona. We went from Tut Creek to Cleveland Spring, down into Foote Creek and out to the Blue River, then back to the trailer, a solid 15 miles.

The trail was quite challenging, but enjoyable. Not for beginners. Watch for a post about the ride on my website, westerntrailrider.com and my YouTube channel, Western Trail Rider, coming next week.

02/02/2024

I'm finally back from St. Louis, MO! I spent 7 weeks there helping my daughter and son-in-law do renovations to their first home. I was very pleased to be able to help them.

We made a number of updates/changes/improvements to the electrical, HVAC, and plumbing systems, reconfigured their master bathroom, and did a lot of repairs and finishing to drywall in a number of rooms. Finally, I built and tiled a new shower stall for them. I wasn't able to stay long enough to finish some things we started, like grouting the new tile and laying the floor tile in their master bathroom and closet, but we got most of the technical and difficult work taken care of. I think I left them with a workable renovation, given their work and school schedules.

Now, I'll take a few days of recovery time, then back to my horses and other projects I have waiting for me!