New Saddle Christening
- January 10, 2025
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- Jan Swan Wood
Posted in: Featured, Horse Supplies, Ranch Life, Uncategorized
My first custom saddle was a pretty exciting thing for me. Having ridden all sorts of saddles over the
years, I was finally getting one made to fit just me. I’d studied the options the maker was offering and
had, on paper, created the saddle to fit my needs perfectly. The saddlemaker was an artist at his trade and made saddles built for hard use and long life.
After waiting for over a year and faithfully sending monthly payments, I got word from the maker that
my saddle was done. I’d asked for some time off from my New Mexico job to make the drive back to
South Dakota to pick up my saddle. I was also hauling a horse back with me, thus the trip rather than just shipping the saddle.
When I got to the shop and laid eyes on the masterpiece he’d created, it was all and more than I’d dreamed of. I stepped aboard the saddle on the stand and sat in it and for the first time in my life, a saddle was narrow enough in the ground seat. I’d sat in it to work on the ground seat on a previous trip back, so it was just perfect. I’m sure my grin reached clear around my head.
When I was ready to head back to my job, I carefully wrapped an old saddle blanket around my new
saddle, keeping the sheepskin horn cover intact while doing so. Then I carefully slid it into the saddle
compartment on my two horse trailer, making sure nothing was going to scrape or stab it and mar it’s
perfect surface. I’d padded it a little even, just to be sure.
I got back to New Mexico late at night and turned my horse in a pen with feed and water and went to bed. The next morning I picked my favorite horse out of my string to be the one to carry my new saddle
on its debut ride. I led Lizzie over to where my trailer was and carefully removed my saddle from its wrappings. I got him saddled and he sure looked good under that custom rig. I stepped on and rode him
back over to the saddle shed where the other cowboys were saddling.
As expected, they all had to come and look it over and admire my new saddle. I was almost to the point of asking them to keep their dusty hands off of it so as to not damage the leather, but I didn’t. Properly admired and comparisons made to what they’d order if they were ordering one, we all got ready to load up for the job of the day.
The whole crew was going to the same place to gather a bunch of bred heifers to work, so it was going
to take two trailers to get the horses there. I loaded Lizzie first in the trailer we were going with and he
walked to the front. Next on was a really nice gelding named Matador and he walked up and stood by
Lizzie. I was watching the next three horses load and happened to glance up to where Lizzie was
standing, no doubt to get a look at that new saddle. Just as I did, I saw Matador reach over and scrape his upper teeth across the seat of my saddle, right behind the swells. Horrorstruck, I stood there with my mouth hanging open I’m sure.
My feelers were still stinging by the time we got to the very rough, brushy pasture we were gathering.
I couldn’t help but look down at the teeth marks across the seat as I headed out to gather. Before the day was done, I also had acquired mesquite thorn gouges, cholla scratches, dead cedar branch scrapes and some blood (mine from the cedars) on my new saddle. The teeth marks across the seat were no longer an issue.
In the long run, I was thankful that Matador got the first blemish on my saddle and got that out of the way. It’s like the first door ding on a new car. It hurts but has to happen. It’s kind of like a christening ritual. Now, after all these years, it’s been scraped, rolled over, a stirrup leather or two torn off, and even
some fingernail marks across the seat and on the swells, maybe even a spur rowel mark. It wears the scars like honor badges and looks the better for them.
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Posted in: Featured, Horse Supplies, Ranch Life, Uncategorized
About Jan Swan Wood
Jan was raised on a ranch in far western South Dakota. She grew up horseback working all descriptions of cattle, plus sheep and horses. After leaving home she pursued a post-graduate study of cowboying and dayworking in Nebraska, New Mexico, Montana, Wyoming and South Dakota....