LP Streifel, the owner of Streifel Saddlery in Vancouver, is pleased to continue repairing saddles years after retiring from custom-making them, which he describes as a fading tradition.
Streifel was born in North Dakota, where his fascination with rodeos began. He began his four-year apprenticeship to make saddles at a leather shop in Miles City, Montana, in 1966, and later moved to Vancouver, where he custom-built saddles for 20 years
“I was always interested in fixing up saddles, repairing, leather work and stuff like that,” Streifel said.
When Streifel received a custom order, he would specify details for the equipment, including the seat length, horn style and skirt type based on the horse’s needs. He would then order a “tree,” the wooden base of the saddle, before beginning the grueling leather-fitting process.
“For my process, [the leather] is cut out. We wet them up. We cut them out to fit the saddle and its design, and then it’s dried. We carve them before they’re completely dry, and then we wet them up against certain parts of the [tree] to fit the saddle. And then when that’s done, we put a candle binding on [the saddle], trim it … We put the sheep skin on it, and everything is sewed by hand,” Streifel said.
Streifel retired from building saddles 10 years ago after being diagnosed with macular degeneration, which causes loss in one’s central vision. Now he focuses solely on repairing and refurbishing saddles.
“We have a bathtub set up in my shop, and we scrub the saddles in the bathtub there real good … We condition the stirrup leathers, twist them so that they fit your leg a lot nicer, and then just let them dry. When they’re dry, we oil [the stirrups] up with pure leaf oil and assemble them back to their original position,” Streifel said of his repairs.
He noted that horse activity in Clark County is less common than in regions like Wyoming and Montana, and local ranchers mainly rely on store-bought saddles made in factories. He said factory-produced saddles are inexpensive to build and aren’t fitted to the specifications a custom builder can make.
“Thirty years ago in Clark County, there was real big horse activity. They had a lot of horse shows, and a lot of people were active in the horse industry. Right now, I don’t believe there’s that much activity at all. It’s all died down quite a bit … [Saddle making] is getting to be kind of a lost art because there’s not that many out there that are doing it anymore,” Streifel said.
LP still takes orders to repair saddles and enjoys the process. For more information, go to streifelsaddlery.com.
