Probably most of you have never seen the inside of a saddle. Most of us hadn't either until Zsuzsu Illes came to visit for a couple of weeks to do clinics on riding and saddle fit. One of our local saddlemakers has been trying to learn to do a better job so he was invited to a saddle fitting session where I translated for him and then he invited the group to his workshop so that Zsuzsu could give him ideas and suggestions for his work. These are some trees for saddles that haven't been built yet. They are not something that I'd put on any of my horses but they will likely end up on horses at the pyramids stables. Unfortunately, most of our good saddles have to be imported at considerable cost and without being able to be sure that they will actually fit our horses. For people who can't afford this, a local saddle is the only solution but it isn't good for the horse. We are working on getting some saddlemakers to come and work with the locals to improve the quality.
Friday, November 13, 2009
The Saddlemaker's Workshop
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16 comments:
hi i'am from indonesia,and i find this blog from Blogger Notes,great info!
regrad :p
belajar seo blogspot
nice post friend.....!!!!
Culture of Indonesia
thanks....
I've never seen the inside of a saddle. Learning how they're made must have been really interesting.
Great blog :)
That's what's inside a saddle? Oh, ouch!
This really enhances my appreciation of the horse.
So interesting, thank you. I had assumed that saddles were mostly the same. Those ones look awfully hard, they must not be very comfortable for the poor horse.
What you see are trees for saddles, the wooden base that provides a broad base for the weight of the rider. These would be covered in wet rawhide and later have (hopefully) wool pads built on them to cushion the horse's back.
The iron portions are where the seat would be. These would have a base and some webbing over which more padding and the leather cover should be constructed. I've seen just webbing and leather seats on some saddles that were made like this and they don't look too comfy.
What about camel saddles?
Camels have totally different shaped backs so camel saddles are quite different. They look like footstools.
Looking at all your pictures & narratives, I'm again reminded that it's possible to travel back in time. Not in the way depicted in Star Trek - i.e. going back over one's time-tracks. But seeing what the past was like and living it with people who still live like that today.
I recognize some of the practices as similar to what my parents experienced growing up 75 years ago.
You've given us a time machine to look into.
Thank you so much!!
CIao Maryanne, probably you know that you are among the blogs of note this week, I always have a peep and sometimes I find interesting things to read.
Good blog, interesting topics, not sure if I am particularly interested in saddles, but it is nice to read something different.
all the best
Alessandra
I've always wanted to go to places like Egypt. I just find places like egypt fascinating.
Thank you for nice photos and sentences.
It makes me happy.I'm interested in riding a horese and photgraph.
Now that I started to interested in Egyp…
uber cool..love love the pics..
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