{"id":128,"date":"2022-02-19T09:12:08","date_gmt":"2022-02-19T09:12:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelairdofglencairn.wordpress.com\/?p=128"},"modified":"2025-08-07T18:20:35","modified_gmt":"2025-08-07T18:20:35","slug":"saving-a-1890-up-saddle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/horsebacksapper.co.uk\/?p=128","title":{"rendered":"Saving a 1890 UP Saddle"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

26 Jun 21<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Recently I was looking for an old damaged military saddle to use to help repair and refurbish a saddle project that I have had on the bench for a while.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having spotted a saddle for sale that looked in poor order but with some of the leather parts looked recoverable. Having chatted to the seller, he described it as a bare bones saddles that was missing the padding while the photos suggesting that it was a Universal Pattern Saddle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having collected the saddle the first look was that it was a very dirty 1903 UP saddle, with the leather rather dry, and the felt pads being in need of a really good clean .<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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However once the felts were off the saddle arches looked a bit different, a quite check of a couple of reference books and it became apparent that this wasn’t an 1902 Saddle but possibly an 1890.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A bit more research and it was indeed a 1890 UP Saddle, and while very dirty and dry the leather of the saddle wasn’t in bad condition. Another chat with the Seller to ask where the saddle came from or if he had any information on the background of the saddle. The saddle was from a farm sale and was part of a job lot of old saddles from a barn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having confirm that my saddle find is a 1890 UP saddle it has been a case to look to see what condition it is in. An initial brush down to get the first layer of dirt off, and then look at getting the seat leather off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The laces holding it on at the front and rear are all shot and fell apart as I worked them through. the stitching on the seat is mostly good so a few careful stitches will fix that. all of the leather will need a good clean and nourishment but overall isn’t bad condition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The seat took some gentle easing to get off the arches but came off with no issues and intact. The flaps were next, these are held on with flat slot head screws and which were a complete bugger to undo. but with them off they are ready to be cleaned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Inspecting the webbing that supports the seat it was no surprise to see that it was really grotty and worn through, so that will be a complete replacement job.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Now being able to have a better look at the steel arches it was a case to look for any damage or cracking and both look good and solid. some light surface rust but that can be cleaned up quite easily.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I also placed the Saddle tree (arches and boards) on a flat surface to check to see if there was a twist and to see if there were movement between the arches and the boards. Luckily the saddle is solid and true so it will be fine to ridden once the leather and webbing is sorted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having cleaned some of the grime from the Fans (wooden boards) there is the makers mark of Mason & Sons Ltd of Brum and a year mark of 1903. Which is a very nice find as it gives a reference date for the saddle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Y Girth straps do look like they have been replaced at some point, which isn’t unusual. the buckle end looks original but the rest looks like a replacement. These both need a bit of repair work but I know good saddler that could easily do that for me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So overall what was meant to be a scrap saddle for parts looks like a saddle that can be brought back into riding condition without changing it too much or losing it’s character. so over the next few weeks will have a case of some good scrubbing and work with the leather dressing<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

26 Jun 21 Recently I was looking for an old damaged military saddle to use…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-128","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/horsebacksapper.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/horsebacksapper.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/horsebacksapper.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/horsebacksapper.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/horsebacksapper.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=128"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/horsebacksapper.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1520,"href":"https:\/\/horsebacksapper.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128\/revisions\/1520"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/horsebacksapper.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/horsebacksapper.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/horsebacksapper.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}