The saddle restoration.

 From an old moldy hunk of junk to a perfectly functional saddle, and all for the cost of elbow grease, 30 bucks worth of oil, and 200 to the repair shop. Here's the post with the before photos 

There are a few things left to do like get a set of stirrups and give these ones back to the saddle maker, and get a new off side billet (the strap the cinch attaches to on this side of the saddle) and get a couple of latigo keepers installed on those front conchos so I have a place to hang the cinch when not in use, and a place to put the excess latigo when I tighten the cinch. 

Front view, showing the leather which we chose instead of sheepskin. Those dark spots are where the saddle strings go through the tree to tie all the skirting down. 

Those angled swells should help keep me in the saddle when I'm working colts!

The leather underside, with a close up of the texture. I am sure this will help to keep the saddle from slipping around, it should have better grip on the saddle pad than sheepskin. 

I have saddle pads of 3 different thicknesses; 1 inch. 3/4 inch and a half inch. I tried this saddle on Sophie with the 1 inch 5 Star pad. 

You can see that the billet strap is too short in this photo

Plenty of wither clearance although I think I could go to the 3/4 inch pad as I think this sets the bars too high on her, but for colts who aren't as wide backed as this mare, this pad should be perfect. When I originally set the bare tree on her I thought there might not be enough wither clearance. This saddle has full quarter horse bars. 

Turned stirrups! 😁

You can see how much lower the cinch sits on this side as compared in the above photo; that's a 36 inch cinch; if it was centered it would probably be a good fit. 

Sophie sez, let's ride!