Pictures Roughly how old is this saddle?

[Boughtabay]

As title really! I’ve tried Googling various terms e.g. “English saddle with wool/material panels”but I’m not having much luck. I assume it was made locally.

 

[PinkvSantaboots]

That looks pretty old to me has it not got a maker's badge under the skirt or sometimes the pins have the name or emblem on them.

Chances are whoever made it are not trading anymore.

 

[PurBee]

Pre-war era maybe?

Found this saying common before war, but was needed for bomber jackets so then there was a switch to felt….not sure if its true, but interesting

https://leatherworker.net/forum/topic/8165-restoring-sheepswool-on-old-saddle/

 

[Barton Bounty]

A lot of western saddles have this underneath? Maybe it was special order for someone ?

 

[The Xmas Furry]

OP, that's very grubby serge under that saddle not sheepskin as others suggest, pre 70s at least and could be much older. Very common under saddles till the early 60s.
Serge was something you really had to look after, brushing after every use at a very minimum.
It was preferred over linen as helped prevent saddles slipping but also more durable. You can still find it used under older side saddles, but linen more common.

 

[Boughtabay]

That looks pretty old to me has it not got a maker's badge under the skirt or sometimes the pins have the name or emblem on them.

Chances are whoever made it are not trading anymore.

no makers badge - probably used on Welsh cobs/ponies to shepherd the mountains. My grandmother has quite a few of them left in various states!

 

[Boughtabay]

Pre-war era maybe?

Found this saying common before war, but was needed for bomber jackets so then there was a switch to felt….not sure if its true, but interesting

https://leatherworker.net/forum/topic/8165-restoring-sheepswool-on-old-saddle/

interesting thankyou! I’ll read through this thread

 

[Boughtabay]

OP, that's very grubby serge under that saddle not sheepskin as others suggest, pre 70s at least and could be much older. Very common under saddles till the early 60s.
Serge was something you really had to look after, brushing after every use at a very minimum.
It was preferred over linen as helped prevent saddles slipping but also more durable. You can still find it used under older side saddles, but linen more common.

it’s definitely had some wear over the years gathering sheep off the mountains but my grandmother can’t remember when they’d have bought them all! it won’t be getting any use with me ?

 

[Boughtabay]

A lot of western saddles have this underneath? Maybe it was special order for someone ?

View attachment 98523

interesting! But definitely not made special order - it’s one of many she’s got in the old tack room in various states of disrepair ?

 

[Barton Bounty]

interesting! But definitely not made special order - it’s one of many she’s got in the old tack room in various states of disrepair ?

Ahhh, be a worthy gallery piece ?

 

[J&S]

All the saddles and bridles looked like this when I was a child, as TFF says, had to brush them up after use, probably had a string girth attached for use.

ETA Whippy was a popular make around that time.

 

[Boughtabay]

All the saddles and bridles looked like this when I was a child, as TFF says, had to brush them up after use, probably had a string girth attached for use.

ETA Whippy was a popular make around that time.

we’ve also got a large collection of string girths! This is what I’d be given if I wanted to tootle about on one of the old cobs when I was small - thanks for the info!

 

[Snowfilly]

Nice old serge lined saddle, fairly basic and common sort - no chance of tracing it without a name / local history but it’s a nice one. They were common up until the 60s and I’m sure some were in use a lot longer than that.

Looks like a nickel snaffle as well?

 

[rextherobber]

Looks like tack we had as children, 60's-70's

 

[Boughtabay]

Nice old serge lined saddle, fairly basic and common sort - no chance of tracing it without a name / local history but it’s a nice one. They were common up until the 60s and I’m sure some were in use a lot longer than that.

Looks like a nickel snaffle as well?

no name on it anywhere - used on a mid Wales hill farm / possibly in the trekking centre. RE snaffle - you’re probably right! I wouldn’t know I wasn’t about ?

 

[onemoretime]

All the saddles and bridles looked like this when I was a child, as TFF says, had to brush them up after use, probably had a string girth attached for use.

ETA Whippy was a popular make around that time.

This picture takes me back to my childhood. All the saddles we rode on were like that. This was in the 50's. If there was a leather panelled saddle around it was considered very posh! As above, it needed brushing after each use. Can you imagine anyone riding on a saddle like that nowadays! There were also felt saddles with a handle on the front for small children to hold on to. That was a lovely reminder OP.

 

[Gloi]

I rode on a saddle like that at a riding school in the early 70s. They had a few Serge lined saddles we had to clean with a brush. They were quite old saddles even then, probably just post war.
Oh yes, those awful nickel snaffles that pinched their lips if you didn't put rubber bit protectors on them.

 

[Ratface]

When I was 10, (1956) I took all my money out of my Post Office account (without telling my mother) and bought a retired polo pony from a rather dubious local dealer. My old pony had just been shot, due to laminitis-induced lameness and another one was not on the cards, according to my father.
Lulu came with a military saddle with a serge lining. Looking at Internet pictures, it's likely that it may have been a left-over from WW1.
She was a lovely companion and an excellent hack. I came home from school one day to be told that my mother had arranged for her to be shot in my absence. I can't remember what the reason was, but I know I cried for most of that night, under the bedclothes, because my father couldn't stand "grizzling children" and would fly into a terrible rage if he heard anyone crying.
It seems so far away in time, now, but I can still feel the dreadful raw pain of her loss.

 

[scruffyponies]

I can't bring myself to 'like' your post Ratface, but I feel for you. I can't imagine having such disregard for the feelings of a child as you're describing. Not just the loss of the pony, but the disregard for your rights as owner, and just the complete beastliness of doing it behind your back.

 

[Boughtabay]

When I was 10, (1956) I took all my money out of my Post Office account (without telling my mother) and bought a retired polo pony from a rather dubious local dealer. My old pony had just been shot, due to laminitis-induced lameness and another one was not on the cards, according to my father.
Lulu came with a military saddle with a serge lining. Looking at Internet pictures, it's likely that it may have been a left-over from WW1.
She was a lovely companion and an excellent hack. I came home from school one day to be told that my mother had arranged for her to be shot in my absence. I can't remember what the reason was, but I know I cried for most of that night, under the bedclothes, because my father couldn't stand "grizzling children" and would fly into a terrible rage if he heard anyone crying.
It seems so far away in time, now, but I can still feel the dreadful raw pain of her loss.

how awful! Sorry my post brought all that back up, I can’t imagine the devastation

 

[Boughtabay]

This picture takes me back to my childhood. All the saddles we rode on were like that. This was in the 50's. If there was a leather panelled saddle around it was considered very posh! As above, it needed brushing after each use. Can you imagine anyone riding on a saddle like that nowadays! There were also felt saddles with a handle on the front for small children to hold on to. That was a lovely reminder OP.

well my grandmother did drop it off for me to use as a breaker on my youngster as “these saddles fit everything” !! Luckily for Mr I found something slightly more modern ?

 

[Mrs. Jingle]

I came home from school one day to be told that my mother had arranged for her to be shot in my absence. I can't remember what the reason was, but I know I cried for most of that night, under the bedclothes, because my father couldn't stand "grizzling children" and would fly into a terrible rage if he heard anyone crying.
It seems so far away in time, now, but I can still feel the dreadful raw pain of her loss.

How absolutely horrific! I was well used to coming home and finding a favourite pony had been sold, all part of the way things were then. But shot! That's a whole different scale of cruelty to a child and the horse! ?

 

[splashgirl45]

sorry Ratface i liked your post due to the fact i was born in 1946 too not for the fate of the pony. what an awful thing to do to a child... most of the saddles i rode on at age 11 had the same lining and i cant recall any saddle cloths, we had to brush them after our ride but in the summer they were damp, none of the ponies ever seemed to get a sore back as far as i can remember... it was a VERY long time ago.

 

[MiJodsR2BlinkinTite]

Looks like tack we had as children, 60's-70's

Yeaph! Takes me right back. A good old fashioned saddle made to last, using decent leather. Nice to see.

Remember the old Serge linings and having to scrub them clean after Pony Club & Hunting! Total PITA, but it's what we all were used to doing. The vast majority of saddles then were Rigid Tree rather than Spring Tree. Spring Tree - and leather linings, were for very expensive saddles for specialist disciplines like Show Jumping, Eventing or Dressage - and certainly not for us lot bouncing around on our ponies! Ohh no. We had to clean the darn Serge.

 

[Baywonder]

I've just shown my DH this saddle. The panel is made using stitching called 'cross barring' and was commonly used in the old days.

This could be 1940's or 50's - but my DH made saddles like this when he first started in the saddlery trade in the early 1970's. ?

 

[Ratface]

I can't bring myself to 'like' your post Ratface, but I feel for you. I can't imagine having such disregard for the feelings of a child as you're describing. Not just the loss of the pony, but the disregard for your rights as owner, and just the complete beastliness of doing it behind your back.

Thank you, all. Your kindness and understanding are much appreciated.
Yes, it was a dreadful experience, but context is all. It was 1956. WW2 had ended, but it's effects on the demobbed militia continued.
My father, a brilliantly clever man, was a "Tail-End Charlie" in Lancaster bombers. He was alone, night after terrifying night, trapped in his perspex bubble, right at the end of the plane's fuselage. He had two Browning machine guns on fixed swivels to deal with the hordes of German Junkers fighter pilots swirling round him with deadly fusillades of machine gun fire, trying to bring him, his crew mates and his bomb-laden plane down. He was on the "bouncing bomb" Ruhr dams raids that destroyed a lot of the German armaments factories and many more. Including, sadly, countless numbers of civilians whose only crime was being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
He survived physically, but very few of his friends did. He came back with a dreadful, terrifying, hair-trigger temper which bumbled permanently near the surface. Not improved by finding that his high-powered professional job had been given to his young trainee "for the duration" and the trainee was fighting tooth and nail to keep it.
He had a heart attack and died in 1957. My mother was left to deal with a large estate, the people who helped us keep it going, plus the household staff, two daughters, the elder, V, The Perfect One, 12 years older than me, the quiet, clever, abused one, (the family knew, but no one mentioned it and Uncle A and his wife and daughter moved away "for work") a variety of stock and horses, arable and grazing land, gardens, woods.
She had a lot on her plate and managed to hold it all together by her "Just Kick On!" attitude, which I have inherited. She did what she did for a good reason, I suppose. Thinking back, Lulu had become a bit "trippy", which I'd mentioned to my mother. Probably a legacy of her polo-playing career. Mother didn't want more aggravation from a physically-damaged daughter (we all rode in HMQE2-type headscarves in those days, or a bowler if hunting) so I can, in a way, see what motivated her.
It was different in those days.

 

[rabatsa]

Thank you, all. Your kindness and understanding are much appreciated.
Yes, it was a dreadful experience, but context is all. It was 1956. WW2 had ended, but it's effects on the demobbed militia continued.
My father, a brilliantly clever man, was a "Tail-End Charlie" in Lancaster bombers. He was alone, night after terrifying night, trapped in his perspex bubble, right at the end of the plane's fuselage. He had two Browning machine guns on fixed swivels to deal with the hordes of German Junkers fighter pilots swirling round him with deadly fusillades of machine gun fire, trying to bring him, his crew mates and his bomb-laden plane down. He was on the "bouncing bomb" Ruhr dams raids that destroyed a lot of the German armaments factories and many more. Including, sadly, countless numbers of civilians whose only crime was being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
He survived physically, but very few of his friends did. He came back with a dreadful, terrifying, hair-trigger temper which bumbled permanently near the surface. Not improved by finding that his high-powered professional job had been given to his young trainee "for the duration" and the trainee was fighting tooth and nail to keep it.
He had a heart attack and died in 1957. My mother was left to deal with a large estate, the people who helped us keep it going, plus the household staff, two daughters, the elder, V, The Perfect One, 12 years older than me, the quiet, clever, abused one, (the family knew, but no one mentioned it and Uncle A and his wife and daughter moved away "for work") a variety of stock and horses, arable and grazing land, gardens, woods.
She had a lot on her plate and managed to hold it all together by her "Just Kick On!" attitude, which I have inherited. She did what she did for a good reason, I suppose. Thinking back, Lulu had become a bit "trippy", which I'd mentioned to my mother. Probably a legacy of her polo-playing career. Mother didn't want more aggravation from a physically-damaged daughter (we all rode in HMQE2-type headscarves in those days, or a bowler if hunting) so I can, in a way, see what motivated her.
It was different in those days.

Everyone has their own story and carry the after effects on in their lives. Not known to others, who only see the outer persona/shell.

This is true even today.

 

[Cragrat]

Ratface - I have no idea what the right thing to say is, but please know I am so sorry for what you and your family went through, and I so admire you for your strength, resilaince , understanding and compasion.

 

[Boughtabay]

I've just shown my DH this saddle. The panel is made using stitching called 'cross barring' and was commonly used in the old days.

This could be 1940's or 50's - but my DH made saddles like this when he first started in the saddlery trade in the early 1970's. ?

wow how interesting thanks for his insight!

 

[tristar]

that saddle could be 100 years or plus or younger

a lot of those saddles had name plates, dates on them, sometimes you could date them pre by when the maker went out of business or the brand got taken over by another saddler