If you ask people in the know, then Jaco Burger of JRB Saddlery in Upington is generally considered one of the top saddle-makers in the country. His leatherwork, they say, is immaculate, and he takes great care in fitting the correct tree to a specific horse. SA Horseman spoke to Jaco about his craft.

SAH: How did you become a saddle-maker?
Jaco: The first "leather article" I made, at about 12 years of age, was a bridle which I still have. Thereafter other items such as -holsters and belts followed. In 1998 I -decided to make my wife, Riëtte, a western -saddle. The only help I had was a book I bought on How to make western saddles by Dave Jones. It was quite a process finding a saddle tree, leather, hardware, etc.! Most of my initial tools I made myself. Since then I've invested in quite a few more books, DVDs and tools, but never had formal training or a real-life mentor. The next saddle I made was for a friend.

In 2001 I visited The Cowboy School near Pretoria and took two saddles with for evaluation. This led to a series of custom made saddles for The Cowboy School. I am -grateful for Eeben and Christina Barlow for giving me this opportunity and the -experience I -obtained during this time. What started out as a -hobby, turned into a part-time business which I -thoroughly enjoy!

SAH: Why western saddles?
Jaco: I have always been fascinated by cowboys and their way of life and working with horses. My dad gave me his western saddle when I was 13. This was my first exposure to a western saddle and I was quite impressed. Working with these saddles made me realise that a western saddle is ideal for work as well as pleasure riding.
I made myself a western saddle in 2003. They are comfortable and durable. The saddle trees you use for western saddles are also very versatile, with specific properties that I believe in. One can even make it a beautiful piece of working art with tooling and decorative trimmings.

SAH: What is your own riding background and passion?
Jaco: At the age of six I got my first horse, a Shetland pony called Kolnet. My first "big horse", Noble, I got at the age of eleven. Since high school I started and trained my own -horses. Farming with cattle, a lot of work is done on horseback.

During the past decade or two, training -material in the form of books and DVDs -became much more available. I've invested in some of these and they also contributed to my way of thinking and working with horses. Without my passion and love for horses, I don't think my saddle-making would have satisfied me the way it does.

SAH: How do you approach the saddle-making process?
Jaco: Being custom saddles, each saddle I make is unique. I visit potential customers and their horses to see what they want and need, and to find the best fit for horse and rider. Finding the right fit for the horse is very important. Dennis Lane from Australia, along with Jeremia Watt from the USA, is currently implementing a card measuring system to standardise the way to measure a horse's back.

We can only base our decisions on what we see and therefore must be very accurate in our observations. I must say it would have been so much easier if horses could talk, so that we could hear what they felt!

SAH: Talk to us about the saddle trees you use?
Jaco: We use rawhide saddle trees imported from the USA. A rawhide tree is a wooden frame covered by rawhide and waterproofed with varnish. They will be serviceable for most of one's active life, if taken care of. Under -extreme stress it will give, but will spring back into its original form when the stress is relieved. A good rawhided tree will seldom break, even under the most difficult conditions.

Giving consideration to the horse, you can have the gullet width and height made to his specifications, as well as the type of bars suitable to a specific individual horse. Any type of horn (wood or metal) can be put on the tree. The cantle can be had in any style, width and height, and the seat will be made in any length you want in increments of half inches.

These saddle trees distribute weight over a wide area and therefore do not pinch or cause pressure points on the horses back. In general you get regular, semi-quarter horse, quarter horse and full-quarter horse trees. Another -criteria is the shape of the fork, namely a swell or slick fork.

SAH: What about the leatherwork?
Jaco: I use local veg tan leather made from -cattle hides. I am very particular about the -quality of leather I use for my saddles. All tooling and carving is done by hand to the -customer's specifications. Stitching is also done by hand (no sewing machines are -involved).

Rawhide can be used for horn and cantle bindings to protect leather from wear. Real sheepskin is used for lining the skirts. There is a variety of silver trimmings that can be used, such as silver lacing on fork cover and cantle, horn caps, corner plates on skirts, conchos, rigging plates, etc. Other than the saddles, we also have a lot of extras available that can match the saddle if the owner wants it, such as breastplates, saddle bags, tapederos, hobbles, headstalls, chaps, chinks, ropes (lariats), horsehair mecates and spurs.

Either brass or stainless steel hardware is used for the D-rings, rigging plates and -buckles. The customer can specify all kinds of -detail, such as the shape and size of the skirts, fenders and seat cover, the color of saddle, the horn, fork and cantle binding type, padded or unpadded seat, the shape and size of the stirrups, leather or rawhide covered stirrups, -polished aluminum stirrups or wooden stirrups covered with brass plate, type of border and tooling, embossing, silver decorations etc. The complete saddle also includes a mohair cinch and flank cinch.

SAH: Who uses your saddles?
Jaco: We have customers from all over South Africa. Initially we made working ranch -saddles, but it didn't take long before we had to make saddles for many kinds of western disciplines, such as pleasure riding, western showing and roping. We always like a new challenge.

SAH: How does one go about getting a saddle from you?
Jaco: When a potential customer contacts us, we try to visit him/her as soon as possible to fit the tree and discuss their preferences. It takes two to three months for the tree to be built and another two months for the saddle to be made. Depending on where you are on the order list, the current waiting time is about 12 months.

Jaco can be contacted at the following numbers: Cell 083 309 8481, home tel +27 54 741 0102,
fax 088 054 741 0102 and e-mail jacoriette@telkomsa.net.