As a leatherworker I do a lot of
restorations. I regularly repair leather-bound boxes to hold antique
$40,00 carriage clocks, make knife sheaths for eBay sellers and repair
bridles and other tack for cowboy friends. The restorations I dread the
most are bringing old saddles back to life. I’ve done dozens, including a
couple for a museum and one that sold for $32,000! It’s hard work
because usually the saddles are filthy with lots of “dead” leather that
needs replacing. And matching the color of the old leather with dyes is
not easy. The only thrill in restoring these old saddles is removing all
the dust and debris to uncover old saddlemaker’s marks like Visalia,
Gallup, Hamley or Leddy.
For some
reason the last four saddles I’ve restored for customers were
sidesaddles and every time I work on one my respect for women who rode
such contraptions grows exponentially. Sidesaddles usually consist of a
single stirrup, a cinch, a small piece of carpet in a Victorian pattern
to sit on, and not much else. They have to be one of the most idiotic
inventions in history. The only advantage over astride saddles is that
in the 1800’s when a man’s saddle cost about $50, a sidesaddle cost only
$30. But even for an old tightwad like myself that price difference
would not be enough incentive to attempt to climb on one. Especially
when you consider that horses were much wilder back then. I swear I
don’t know how the women hung on but there is one report of a woman
riding a sidesaddle on a cattle drive all the way from Texas to Montana!
As
I understand it, the sidesaddle was invented because Queen Elizabeth
couldn’t ride astride like men and women had done for centuries because
of a deformity in her back, probably as a result of too much royal
inbreeding. This was during the Victorian age when women felt they had
to do what the royals did. So women had to hang off the side of their
saddles holding on for dear life for generations all because of too many
cousins marrying each other.
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