The work

Saddles

Built one at a time, to fit your horse and the work you do. Sheridan-style floral carving, border and geometric stamping, silver mounting, and roughout saddles made to earn their keep.

Custom Van Dyke saddle with hand-carved floral tooling on the corners and fenders, standing against a weathered barn wall — Floral-cornered saddle, light veg-tan

Roughout-seat ranch saddle with hand-tooled floral skirts and fenders — Roughout seat, floral skirts

Full side view of a custom saddle with hand-stamped borders and floral corner tooling — Border-stamped ranch saddle

Custom saddle with geometric border stamping and carved floral corners against a plank wall — Geometric borders, carved corners

Plain roughout ranch saddle built for everyday work, hung against weathered boards — Plain roughout, built to work

Hand-carved Sheridan-style floral tooling across a saddle seat and jockeys — Sheridan-style floral, seat and jockeys

Close view of deep-cut floral carving across a saddle seat and cantle — Deep-cut floral across the seat

Carved cantle and jockey above a roughout seat on a finished saddle — Carved cantle over a roughout seat

Detail of a carved saddle jockey and stirrup leather slot with a silver concho — Jockey, slot and concho

Hand-carved scrollwork and leaves on a saddle fender, photographed outdoors — Scrollwork on the fender

Carved floral cantle and jockeys on a finished custom saddle — Cantle and jockeys

Floral-tooled saddle skirt and jockey photographed against weathered wood — Tooled skirt and jockey

Close-up of a hand-carved floral fender against the smooth skirt of a saddle — Fender carving against a clean skirt

Detail of hand-stamped border work and carved leaves on a finished saddle — Border stamping, close up

Carved cantle binding and tooled jockeys seen from above on a custom saddle — Looking down the cantle

Hand-carved floral cantle above a roughout skirt on a working saddle — Carved cantle, roughout skirt

Braided leather lacing running down the back of a hand-carved saddle cantle — Braided lacing down the cantle back

Silver-mounted saddle seat with hand-carved floral tooling and engraved silver corner plate — Silver-mounted, floral carved

Engraved silver corner plate set into deeply carved floral tooling on a saddle — Engraved corner plate

Engraved silver initial plate mounted on the cantle of a hand-carved custom saddle — Initial plate on the cantle

Saddle horn cap carved with a single large flower and hand-stitched edge — Horn cap, single flower

Hand-carved floral horn cap with a beaded border on a finished saddle — Floral horn cap, beaded border

A brand carved into the horn cap

Heart-and-cross brand

Pictorial figure carving worked into the cantle of a custom saddle — Figure carving on the cantle

Figure carving with wood-burned shading set among tooled borders on a saddle — Wood-burned shading

Close view of a shaded pictorial carving surrounded by hand-stamped border work — Pictorial work, close up

The Paul Van Dyke maker's stamp — Paul Van Dyke, Maker, Sheridan, WY — pressed into the leather — The maker's stamp

Hands tooling a floral pattern into a saddle part at the workbench — At the bench

A freshly carved cantle piece lying on the bench in front of a rack of stamping tools — Fresh off the bench

A saddle skirt part-way through carving, showing floral and border work in progress — Part-way through

Two matching carved saddle parts laid out on the bench after tooling — A matched pair

A set of hand-tooled saddle and tack parts laid out on the bench before assembly — Before assembly

Paul Van Dyke fitting a hand-carved horn cap while building a saddle — Fitting the horn cap

A small tooled leather piece beside a swivel knife on the workbench — Swivel knife work

Commission a saddle

Your new saddle starts here

Tell Paul about your horse, the work you do, and what you have in mind. Tree fit, ground seat, rigging and tooling all get decided together before a knife touches leather.

Email Paul Call the shop