Once all the bar adjustments have been made and the strainer has been installed, we move on to the building the ground seat.
The ground seat material is a  F-02045  vibration dampening close cell rubber that can be shaped  and sanded .
Using this material for the ground seat add about 9 oz. to the weight of the saddle verses 2 lbs in leather.
The ground seat is shaped to fit the rider and the shaping is different depending on gender.
With close contact in mind,  and a centered balance rider we are able to achieve a  solid foundation for the rest of the seat.

Now its time to design the saddle parts. This is first done in construction paper before the leather is cut.
This step was done several times with performance in mind. It is important the saddle allows for as much freedom of movement for the horse as possible.
Keeping the total weight of the saddle in mind, the leather was split to a even weight at the tannery according to our spec.
There are several reasons for this, one is a balance of weight across the length of the saddle tree. Two, Using the right weight of leather for close contact at the center of the bar and double layers on the outer edge of the skirts to maintain the shape. as well as being able to add liner leather to the inside of the seat jockey and fenders without making them to thick. The reason a liner is added is for durability and easy cleaning of the leather. This is very important with the inside of the fender and where most of the sweat and dirt will build up.
After the leather has been cut it's time to wet mold and shape the leather to the tree.
The swell and back cantle leather is shaped and glued to the tree then the skirt leather is molded around the bottom of the bar to define the bar shape, again allowing close contact to the horse. Once the skirt leather is in place, the skirt top plate is glued in place and then stitched.
The edge of the skirts are then trimmed, sanded and buffed and are ready for sheepwool. The skirts are then re-install on the saddle tree and the final shaping is done and the leather allowed to dry overnight. The seat leather is also molded to the ground seat at the same time so that all the leather will dry at the same rate. ( for the best results in the finishing stage the leather should only be wet once. If you have had a saddle where the leather was very hard and not pliable, one of the reason would be the leather was soaked and allow to dry to many times. Each time this is done the leather loses vital properties that keep it supple.)
The drying process may take up to 3 days to complete, once the leather is dry neatsfoot oils is applied to all of the parts several times. The saddle is then allowed to stand for another 3 days. During this time all the edges are finished and sealed. The liner leather is glued and stitched in place. Sheepwool is glued and sewn to the skirts. The rigging is mounted to the tree and some of the hardware is installed. The foam for the quilted padded seat is cut, shaped and stitched.

Here you see the saddle going together, the seat has been glued and stitched to the seat jockies and glued to the ground seat.
We still sew the rolled cantle binder edge by hand and the rest of the hardware has been installed, the saddle is now ready for our leather conditioner.

Here is a front view of the saddle. You can see that the sheepwool is nice and thick and will offer a lot of comfort for the horse.
If a saddle fits well to the horse then a simple sport or performance saddle pad is all you will need. We are working on the development of a sheepskin performance saddle pad to go with our endurance saddle and details will be posted on the sheepwool saddle pad page.