Thursday 23 June 2022

Book Review: The Art of Saddle Making

 A few years ago I decided that I finally wanted to have a go at making an English saddle. Having searched online for several patterns I purchased a copy of 'The Art of Saddle Making' by Kelly Neve.



Price: £21.56

Purchase Link: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Art-Model-Saddle-Making-Huntseat/dp/1980217564/

This little book is published by Amazon (which is good because it means you can buy it wherever you live) and contains a step by step guide to create your own Huntseat Saddle.

The guide is pretty easy to follow and really well laid out. It doesn't require a huge amount of complex supplies, you can probably put the saddle together from the tack making things you've already hoarded! 

It has full colour pictures throughout and even little mini rulers (just in case you don't own a ruler) and the instructions are detailed and really easy to follow. There are patterns at the back that you can photocopy and then use to create your saddle. My only criticism is probably that the patterns aren't 100% perfect, but it's a minor one, they are good enough to get you started and then you can start to create your own.

It also has a variety of different options and modifications, it helps you to fit your saddle to your actual model rather than just creating a generic piece and offers advice as to how to scale up and down the patterns. This means its great if you are working on a different sized horse!

I honestly found it really easy to follow, although I still need to work a bit on my saddles I was able to create one! Which is better than not creating one. A lot more practice needed but it isn't awful:


Overall rating: 4 unicorns out of five


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