Building a Better Saddle

With the skill of a surgeon, Clint McDaniel, 34, painstakingly cuts out nearly 50 pieces of leather, the amount he’ll need to craft just one prized saddle sold at his family’s shop—McDaniel Saddlery—in Alvarado, Texas (pop. 3,288).

With the skill of a surgeon, Clint McDaniel, 34, painstakingly cuts out nearly 50 pieces of leather, the amount he’ll need to craft just one prized saddle sold at his family’s shop—McDaniel Saddlery—in Alvarado, Texas (pop. 3,288).

Next he’ll dampen layers of leather and mold them onto the seat. He’ll fit and reinforce leather rigging, add cushioning for the horse, and piece it all together with stitching that emphasizes Western styling.

“I’ve always loved this work,” says McDaniel, a fourth-generation saddle maker who enjoys spending time alongside his mentors—father, Ron, 59, and grandfather, Preston, 83. “It takes artistic ability to do it properly.”

In a week’s time, with one employee helping with hand-tooled decorations, Clint can produce one saddle—sometimes two. Before a saddle goes out the door, he sits in it, checking for comfort and identifying spots that need smoothing out. In the final stage, Clint affixes a leather panel embossed with a unique serial number and the McDaniel name behind the seat.

The dedication to quality is a hallmark of every generation at McDaniel Saddlery, whose slogan is “We make the best, and repair the rest.” Preston McDaniel learned the craft from his father, John, a master saddle maker who specialized in repairing saddles for cowboys in the Texas Panhandle in the 1920s. “My daddy said, ‘First you need to build the saddle to fit the horse. If he’s not comfortable, he’s not gonna work for you,’” Preston recalls. “Then you build it to fit the rider and to last, and you put a lifetime guarantee on it.”

Preston constructed his first saddle in 1965, and has seen business grow steadily. These days, there’s a six-month backlog of orders for the family’s handcrafted saddles. When his health allows, the elder McDaniel works alongside his grandson, crafting leather accessories. “It’s been a blessing,” says Preston of the family business. “A man puts in all his life doing something, then his family gets interested in it.”

His son Ron couldn’t agree more. “One of the biggest joys for me in this whole operation is working with my family,” he says. These days Ron leaves most of the saddle making to the younger generation, and instead focuses on assisting customers and bookkeeping. “I don’t look at myself as a salesman,” Ron says. “I just show people our saddles and explain to customers as much as I can about how they are built. The more a person knows about saddles, the more they’re going to want one of ours because of the quality that goes into them.”

On a typical afternoon, Ron is busy fielding phone calls. “That last call was from a couple from Tucson, Arizona,” he says. “They’re flying in to order a saddle.” With so many variations and styles, customers often sit in several samples before choosing a particular saddle.

Ropers prefer a saddle with an oversized horn, while pleasure riders and those who practice a sport called “cutting” often prefer a deeper seat with higher backs, to keep them snug on the horse. The proportions of the seat can be adjusted to the precise dimensions a customer prefers, and color, leathers, and decoration combinations are practically limitless. Burgundy, brown and black with tooled designs and silver conchos are among the popular choices, and saddle prices range from $3,000 to $5,000.

Former national bull riding champion Glenn McIlvain, who now produces rodeo shows, stops at the shop periodically. When his 7-year-old son has grown enough, McIlvain plans to bring him to the McDaniels for his own custom saddle. “All I had to do was sit on one of their saddles and I was sold,” McIlvain says. “The quality is impeccable.”

Ron likes to say a saddle maker’s goal is to fix a saddle before it breaks. In other words, get it right the first time. “We want our customer to be 100 percent satisfied. If he’s not, we’ll build another one,” he says proudly. “The way I look at it, that’s my name right there on the back of that saddle.”

Wendy Lyons Sunshine is a writer in Arlington, Texas.

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