His Silver Saddles Shine At Shows, Parades

His Silver Saddles Shine At Shows Parades LIVESTOCK Horses/Mules Back in the 1940’s and 50’s when Hollywood stars rode horses decked out with sterling silver saddles and tack a saddle-maker named Ted Flowers in Indiana decided to make his own silver saddles But he used German silver nickel silver that looked the same but cost a lot less About 15 years ago leather-worker Bob Glessner discovered and purchased Flowers’ old dies and started making silver saddles “When I build a full clad silver saddle not a lot of leather shows through ” Glessner says explaining that it’s like building two saddles because everything has to be backed with leather It takes about three months to complete a saddle and tack “I also do a lot of restoration work ” Glessner says Because he has the dies he can make parts for people who own Flowers’ saddles Following Flowers’ style Glessner offers six full-clad styles that include diamonds horse heads Indian heads and other designs He customizes them with initials and other items at the customer’s request He also offers custom saddles with varying amounts of silver Cost for the full-clad silver saddles starts at just over $11 000 averaging about $15 000 Glessner’s customers have show horses and ride in parades and his saddles appear at the Rose Bowl With more interest in developing new parade classes for horses he’s seeing renewed interest in silver saddles Contact Glessner for a catalog of saddle styles or about saddle restoration Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Loon Creek Leather LLC Huntington Ind ph 260 356-0726; www looncreekleather com

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