On this gorgeous 1920’s era Visalia silver parade saddle, all the leather was in such a state of deterioration that every piece had to be recreated and brought back to its original color of brown. We take great pride in the fact that we have the ability to exactly match any of the old styles of leather carving, regardless of the maker.

The silver work required on this particular Visalia saddle was extremely extensive. Every piece of silver on the saddle was filled with lead, which had to be removed in order to solder all new prongs on every piece. All the missing pieces of silver on the saddle was recreated in our shop, even including having to create and machine different silver stamping dies. As the pre-restoration photo below clearly shows the rope edge cantle roll on the seat had been smashed, broken or severely cracked in no less than 12 places, as with countless pieces over the years, we were able to restore it flawlessly.

With 30 years of experience, we have been able to develop the unique ability to evaluate and determine if any piece on a saddle has been altered in any way from the original maker’s intent and if so, correct it. For example, the tapaderos that came with this Visalia saddle were not original and so had to be completely recreated with the right style carving, conformation, silver layout including the correct amount of silver pieces.

When true craftsmanship, honesty, three decades of experience and expertise are important to you when deciding, that it is time to bring your priceless treasures back to their original glory, look no further than Carney Custom Creations for all your restoration needs.