by Carolyn Penna

For those of us who want to ride our horses aside Western style, there are not many sidesaddle choices. Of course, there are the antique stock type sidesaddles, which often will not fit today's stock type horse. If you seek a modern western sidesaddle, there are those built on the Steele tree, those made to order by skilled saddlemakers with a sidesaddle specialty, and those made by stock saddle companies. Circle Y and Comal are two of the few stock saddle companies which will build western sidesaddles. Although the saddles are not custom made per se, they generally are not in stock - they must be ordered and will be built on demand. In most cases they are made to stock specifications, in terms of fit and tree type.

If you look at a variety of Circle Y sidesaddles, you will note that they all are built on the same tree. The only variation seems to be in the seat length and amount of fancy trim. The tree affords a good fit to a wide variety of horses, but has some weaknesses in the area of rider comfort: the seat has an uphill slope, even when the saddle sits level on the horse; and the fiberglass supporting the seat extends out in front of the upright pommel, which can prevent the rider from properly placing the right leg against the safe, and cause discomfort.

I had the opportunity to purchase an attractive 30 year old Circle Y sidesaddle at a great price this past winter, and I jumped on it. I had tried saddles built on the Steele tree, which fit the horse well, but just didn't work for me. And, it wasn't the right time to invest in a custom western sidesaddle - I didn't even have my own horse! As this one had a reasonably short seat, and was known to fit Morgans - the breed I was riding - it appeared to be a good bet.

The saddle arrived, and I was very pleased. It was reasonably well built and beautifully tooled. It seemed to be quite comfortable when I tried it out on the rack, and the first time I tried it on the horse. AND, the big bonus - it actually fit the horse well! I was riding a friend's Morgan mare at the time. This horse was very broad in the shoulder, and particularly hard to fit to an English sidesaddle. I truly thought I had hit the jackpot.

As can be seen above and below, the Circle Y features a suede covered seat, shaped very similarly to the Morgan-Ruwart style trees which became popular around the turn of the century. The seat is slightly higher on the right side; a slight elevation on the left side would be more desirable. Like an astride stock saddle, it has a traditional double rigging. It has fairly narrow pommels, also like the antiques, and this particular model featured some modest concho trim made of German silver.

Nearside view. Note the significant amount of seat forward of the upright pommel.

I corresponded with some of my sidesaddle friends who ride in western sidesaddles, and showed off my new acquisition. I got back some warnings about the Circle Y's tendency to roll, because it lacked a balance strap. I also was given several recommendations to remedy this. The one I chose utilizes the existing offside flank billet as a balance billet, and an off billet to replace the latigo on the near side. The original flank cinch was quite wide - about 3". This was replaced by a 1.75" wide cinch, shortened about 6". The cinch fastens from the offside flank billet to the nearside cinch billet, very similar to the balance strap of an English sidesaddle. I have not experienced any rolling of the saddle with this arrangement.

This shot shows the balance girth. It buckles to the offside flank billet and to the nearside girth billet.

The Circle Y's other innate faults didn't really come to light until I began taking some lessons in it. That's when fighting the seat's uphill tendency became rather tiresome, the lack of any padding or support under the safe prevented the ability to grip well with the right leg, and the WORST offender - the tree under the seat extended forward of the upright pommel for about 2 inches, causing a ridge under my right calf. Any attempt to grip with the right leg resulted in significant pain.

Despite my smile, keeping my right leg in position caused significant pain.
Note the lack of support beneath my right leg for grip.

I was determined to make this saddle work for me, because it fit the horse so nicely, and was a wonderful bargain. The first problem I chose to attack was the uphill seat. I counteracted this somewhat with the use of a Cashel wedge pad, which increases in thickness from .5" in front to 1.25" in back. While this pad doesn't completely eliminate the uphill feeling, it helps tremendously, and was a very quick fix. For showing, the pad will be completely hidden beneath a navajo.

Cashel's cool back square wedge pad

Next, I decided to tackle the safe padding problem. Using an old closed cell foam riser pad I had hanging around, I cut a shape which was custom contoured to fit the profile of the saddle beneath the safe. For cosmetic purposes, I then covered it with dark brown suede. Lastly, I detached the top of the safe from beneath the seat, with the intention of reattaching it to the top of the seat. A bit of extra padding was planned for placement here, as well. It was my hope that the extra padding, coupled with the safe leather, would minimize the discomfort caused by the ridge.

Because the reattached safe would look rather unsightly, I made a thin suede covered foam pad, stitched with a pattern to match the seat, which would cover the area where the safe was reattached to the seat. At this point in time, I had not considered cutting the seat tree itself. And, because the saddle was out on loan to a friend for most of the summer, the customized padding did not get added to the saddle right away.

This is the suede covered foam pad which was added under the safe

A period of 2-3 months passed, and I had the saddle back once again. Moreover, I had a new horse, and I was anxious to get going with her. Plans to show her accelerated the need for a saddle that worked for us both. In a fit of bravado, I peeled back the seat's suede and underlying foam padding, to see what was there. I was surprised to find a relatively thin (1/8-1/4") fiberglass tree on which the seat was built. I discussed the problem I was having with saddler Lillian Chaudhary, a fellow aside rider who custom builds western sidesaddles, and repairs and rebuilds sidesaddles of all kinds. In our discussions, I mentioned that I thought trimming the fiberglass of the tree which extended forward of the upright pommel might improve the situation. I also asked her if I was insane to consider doing this myself. She encouraged me to go for it, and made a few recommendations about how best to accomplish the task.

A closeup of the upright pommel area, showing the area planned for trimming.
Note that the safe has been detached from the underside of the seat.

My partner in crime, Shelly Liggett, offered to assist and to lend moral support. Trust me - moral support is very important, when you are about to take a saw to your sidesaddle! We set up our operating room in her home, and assembled our tools. The decorative concho just below the upright pommel was unscrewed and removed, to make access a little easier. Our plan was to use a small keyhole hacksaw to remove the unwanted fiberglass, but it immediately proved difficult. Shelly's husband John came to the rescue, with a power jigsaw in hand. In no time, he had removed a tapered piece about 8" long and 1.25" wide at its widest point, along the path we pointed out. Both Shelly and I tested the result. It was better, but there still was some more to go. John carefully removed another small segment - about 1/2" wide at it's widest this time - and we were home free. Comfort!

This innocent looking piece of fiberglass is all that stood between us and comfort.
Note the second cut, at the top of the image.

To finish off the newly shaped area, we used a Dremel tool to smooth the edges of the fiberglass. The edges were then wrapped with duct tape. We cut away some of the foam padding and cheesecloth which surrounded it, along the contours of the new shape. We also removed some of the excess seat suede. The remaining suede was pulled taut over the edge, and tucked back into the various nooks and crannies from which we pulled it. Some contact cement and tiny brass screws were used to hold it in place.

The safe leather was reattached to the top of the seat's tree (note screwholes) and covered with a piece of dark brown suede, quilted to match the seat of the saddle.

Once the seat suede was back in place, we positioned the safe padding. To secure it in place, it was screwed down to the top of the seat, and a modest strip of Velcro was added to the underside of the safe and the corresponding position on the padding. The Velcro also was pursuaded to stay put with the use of contact cement. We then tacked the top of the safe to the top of the seat, over the newly-placed padding, using small brass screws (see picture above). Before screwing it down, however, we stitched the decorative safe pad in place, so that it would hide the screws and leather beneath. The safe was screwed into place. The last bit to do was to secure the decorative padding below the upright pommel. I assigned the job of holding the pad in place to the decorative silver concho below the pommel. A small hole was made in the suede to be secured, and the wood screw of the concho was passed through it. The concho was screwed back into place, and the job was complete!

Below is a picture of the saddle with all its modifications. The saddle certainly doesn't look any the worse for wear, and it's now quite pleasurable to ride. The major work is now done, although I plan to add a few more pieces of silver here and there. I also am redesigning the balance strap to be shorter and thinner, and, thus, more attractive and better fitting. And, for better balance, I am investing in a custom pad designed by a saddler friend to the exact shape of the seat, which will add some thickness under my left hip.

The saddle, as it looks today.
Note the suede-covered piece added at the top of the safe.