Show Western Saddles – How Can I Decorate My Plain Western Saddle?

Want to turn your plain saddles into show western saddles or a parade saddle? Saddles can be made into pieces of art if you add tooling, lacing, and/or silver. These can be somewhat simple or very extreme and detailed.

Now, if you could go back in time you would not find the cowboys galloping all about with silver-decorated saddles, but most western show saddles these days have plenty of silver. So you can start there if you want to beautify your saddle and give it some extra dazzle for the show ring. You can buy silver and add it to pretty much anywhere you like, but common areas of placement include the corners of the skirt, the horn, and the conchos that hold the saddle strings. Keep in mind though that all the extra silver will require periodic cleaning to keep it shiny.

Tooling is also nice, and is usually done by your saddlemaker. There is a saddle shop near me that is family owned and you can take your saddle in and have these things added. Stamping patterns are used for this and can be very simple or highly complex. Themes commonly include flowers, geometric patterns, barbed wire patterns, leaves, stems, and various real-life scenes.

Decorative lacing also adds a nice touch to your show western saddle but again makes the saddle a bit difficult to clean. All those nooks and crannies caused by tooling, stamping, silver, conchos, and lacing can be time consuming when it comes to oiling and cleaning. But the finished product will be amazingly beautiful and worthy of any western horse show, parade, or trophy shelf. Just think how nice your 8 x 10 blue ribbon winning photos will look on the wall with your horse all decked out in his or her finery!