Restored Ladies Western Saddle with Feminine Tooling

This photo shows a semi-antique longhorn (now known as simco) brand western saddle. The tooling pattern indicates it is obviously a ladies saddle and saddlers suggest this saddle may have been hand tooled, as indicated by the unique and very original feminine tooling. This photo shows this saddle during restoration. When purchased, the saddle had been covered with a polyurethane based laquer! Hours were spent scrubbing the layers of laquer away and even paint thinner had to be used in places. This photo was taken of the saddle once it was entirely stripped down to raw leather again. over the course of the next six weeks multiple coats of pure neatsfoot oil were applied and this saddle is now a rich, supple saddle once again in riding use.