About 2 months ago I started a forum post on Saddles. Here it is:
Saddles
It basically was about the sanity of owning a saddle and no horse. I have been a holster collector for about 20 years. My favorites are floral carved ones from the big three makers (Heiser, Myres, and Lawrence). So, naturally, I decided to find a floral carved saddle.
I started looking and researching, and finally, I found a couple of saddles that interested me. One was a Heiser, and the other was a Fred Mueller. After negotiations, I acquired the Heiser saddle. When I started researching Heiser saddles, I quickly found out something that surprised me. There is quite a bit of detailed information about their holsters online, much of it here on this forum, or other gun forums, but very little detailed saddle information. I have hard copies and digital copies of some Heiser catalogs, but when I looked at the ones I had, there were very few pages on saddles. They were fairly thin and mostly dedicated to gun leather. There are some catalogs dedicated more toward saddles, harnesses, bits, and Spurs. Some of those are their #18, #21, #28, #35, and #41 catalogs. These wholesale catalogs are much thicker, some having over 200 pages, and have around 60-70 pages of saddles. If you have any of the hard copies of the catalogs, take good care of them, because they can be worth a lot of money. Heiser Catalog #18 (220 total pages and 70 pages of saddles) sold at auction on August 1, 2020 for $510.25! I bought a digital copy of catalog #28 for $13. It has a red cover with a roping cowboy on it that says it is their 78th Anniversary. It is about 100 pages with 30 pages of saddles. Some of those pages are 3 saddles per page, so there is quite a number of saddles shown. I think it should be from around 1935.
I found the saddle I have in the #28 catalog. My saddle is their Model 39 Oklahoma Special Roper Fork Saddle. It has a 16 inch seat, weighs about 40 pounds, and cost $148.20 in this catalog. I looked through some other online Heiser catalogs trying to find my saddle with no luck. It may be in one that I was not able to look at, may have been assigned another model number, or may have been discontinued. The saddle is in terrific condition for being 80 years old or so. After I got it, I worked on it similarly to the vintage holsters I get. I then thought about how I was going to display it. I decided to buy a saddle blanket (got it for $13 from Tractor Supply) and saddle stand kit.
From what I understand, each Heiser saddle has a number on it. Mine is 27490. I guess it is like a serial number, but unfortunately, I can't find any information that says when certain serial numbers were assigned. Some of the numbers I have seen even have letters in the series. It is really disappointing to me that I can't find out more information using this number. From my research, I found that many of the earlier saddles had large square skirts, like this one does, and they became smaller and more rounded as time went by. The stirrup straps are laced on, instead of using buckles. I hope some of you folks might have one or more of the other Wholesale Saddle catalogs so I can find out about when the Model 39 was first offered by Heiser and when it was discontinued.
I found out some information about this particular saddle. It has the initials "WR" carved by Heiser on the back of the seat, and a circle with a perpendicular line through it carved on the bottom of each fender. The guy I got it from wrote me this. "The original owner was an old school rancher/cowboy style whose family were some of the original land owners in the San Juan Capistrano area. There are still a handful of ranches there, and many stables & horse owners. Every year they did the "Swallows Parade" near the mission in downtown San Juan. He was one the the Horsemen that are a big part of the parade. And this saddle was in the parade for decades." Unfortunately, I have had no luck finding out who "WR" is.
I am still trying to find out the gentleman's name, and what the symbol might be. Maybe a ranch or cattle brand. Since this saddle is a Roper’s model, and has a strap to secure a rope, I think I should look for a vintage rope to add to my display.
Here are some pictures:
Larry
Saddles
It basically was about the sanity of owning a saddle and no horse. I have been a holster collector for about 20 years. My favorites are floral carved ones from the big three makers (Heiser, Myres, and Lawrence). So, naturally, I decided to find a floral carved saddle.
I started looking and researching, and finally, I found a couple of saddles that interested me. One was a Heiser, and the other was a Fred Mueller. After negotiations, I acquired the Heiser saddle. When I started researching Heiser saddles, I quickly found out something that surprised me. There is quite a bit of detailed information about their holsters online, much of it here on this forum, or other gun forums, but very little detailed saddle information. I have hard copies and digital copies of some Heiser catalogs, but when I looked at the ones I had, there were very few pages on saddles. They were fairly thin and mostly dedicated to gun leather. There are some catalogs dedicated more toward saddles, harnesses, bits, and Spurs. Some of those are their #18, #21, #28, #35, and #41 catalogs. These wholesale catalogs are much thicker, some having over 200 pages, and have around 60-70 pages of saddles. If you have any of the hard copies of the catalogs, take good care of them, because they can be worth a lot of money. Heiser Catalog #18 (220 total pages and 70 pages of saddles) sold at auction on August 1, 2020 for $510.25! I bought a digital copy of catalog #28 for $13. It has a red cover with a roping cowboy on it that says it is their 78th Anniversary. It is about 100 pages with 30 pages of saddles. Some of those pages are 3 saddles per page, so there is quite a number of saddles shown. I think it should be from around 1935.
I found the saddle I have in the #28 catalog. My saddle is their Model 39 Oklahoma Special Roper Fork Saddle. It has a 16 inch seat, weighs about 40 pounds, and cost $148.20 in this catalog. I looked through some other online Heiser catalogs trying to find my saddle with no luck. It may be in one that I was not able to look at, may have been assigned another model number, or may have been discontinued. The saddle is in terrific condition for being 80 years old or so. After I got it, I worked on it similarly to the vintage holsters I get. I then thought about how I was going to display it. I decided to buy a saddle blanket (got it for $13 from Tractor Supply) and saddle stand kit.
From what I understand, each Heiser saddle has a number on it. Mine is 27490. I guess it is like a serial number, but unfortunately, I can't find any information that says when certain serial numbers were assigned. Some of the numbers I have seen even have letters in the series. It is really disappointing to me that I can't find out more information using this number. From my research, I found that many of the earlier saddles had large square skirts, like this one does, and they became smaller and more rounded as time went by. The stirrup straps are laced on, instead of using buckles. I hope some of you folks might have one or more of the other Wholesale Saddle catalogs so I can find out about when the Model 39 was first offered by Heiser and when it was discontinued.
I found out some information about this particular saddle. It has the initials "WR" carved by Heiser on the back of the seat, and a circle with a perpendicular line through it carved on the bottom of each fender. The guy I got it from wrote me this. "The original owner was an old school rancher/cowboy style whose family were some of the original land owners in the San Juan Capistrano area. There are still a handful of ranches there, and many stables & horse owners. Every year they did the "Swallows Parade" near the mission in downtown San Juan. He was one the the Horsemen that are a big part of the parade. And this saddle was in the parade for decades." Unfortunately, I have had no luck finding out who "WR" is.
I am still trying to find out the gentleman's name, and what the symbol might be. Maybe a ranch or cattle brand. Since this saddle is a Roper’s model, and has a strap to secure a rope, I think I should look for a vintage rope to add to my display.
Here are some pictures:
Larry
Attachments
Last edited:
Here are some more pictures:
