Saddlery KT & GD Grivell

Check out our new page especially if you need a quality saddle or tack, we can even offer made to measure saddles and bridles.

Recently we had a customer who had spent a lot of time and money trying to find a saddle to fit a very wide horse.

We have a 2nd generation saddler supplying us with quality saddles and tack made form English leather.

For those people who have ever owned a Chunky pony, Welsh Cob, Quarter Horse, Clydesdale, Friesian, etc or other hard to fit breed will know just how hard it is to find a saddle to fit one of these horses.

It's almost impossible to find a used saddle, and if you do you will probably end up paying a lot of money for a saddle that may have been modified to fit a horse.

Off the shelf saddles just won't fit, and even though you can buy saddles with changable gullets they still are not adjustable the full length of the tree, meaning that it's only the wither width that can be changed, so the channel can still be too narrow.

We can get the saddle tree made to fit the horse.

This is a much better option than changing the padding as the tree is the foundation of the saddle, and if the founation doesn't fit it is a poor substitute to just change the packing to make it fit the horse.

I have not added prices at this stage but you can expect to pay around $1500 to $1800 for a custom made saddle depending on the style you choose prices will include freight to Australia.

G'Day,
          I have been making horse gear since 1986.
I started because I wanted to buy a bridle, and all I could find was cheap imported leather that was very dry and would crack in no time at all, or high quality English show bridles (they were lovely, but much too good to use everyday) not to mention very expensive.
I wanted to buy an Australian made bridle, made of Australian leather, and it seemed to be as elusive as rocking horse manure.
So I decided to make one myself. Of course I was very proud of my bridle and showed all my friends, it seemed they wanted good quality gear at a reasonable price to, so it wasn't long before I was making and selling them.
        Since those early days my leather working skills have improved, and I have made a lot of other items as well including Western Saddles, Sheep and Cattle Halters, Dog collars, Stubby holders and even S&M, and NO it wasn't for me, and NO I won't tell you who it was for.
Well now I've told you a little about my leather work, you can tell me what you want?

Cheers
Glenys Grivell
 

*SOLD* This saddle is fully hand stitched, 16" seat, Ralide tree with semi QH bars, sheepskin lined.*SOLD*

I mainly use Australian harness leather, but can also get Hermann Oak from the USA.

I use first quality "real" sheepskin lining in either fawn or grey.

There is a variety of silver conchos, silver tips, cornerplates, horncaps, cantle plates, etc.   I recommend that you give me a brief description of what you would like, as there is a large range of silver, and it would take forever to send pictures of everything.

I can also offer custom made silver, you could even design your own, but this can be quite expensive.

There is a variety of stirrup styles available, Visalia is the most popular and I always have these in stock.

Choice of Blevins Buckles or Superior Quick-Change Stirrup Adjusters.

I'm very fussy when it comes to saddle trees, after all this is the foundation of a saddle, if the tree is twisted or warped in anyway this will affect the finished saddle, and could cause all sorts of problems with your horses back.

I have found an excellent tree maker John Brophy, and he's an Aussie too.

John can make your trees to any specifications you like.

Please remember though that he is busy, and you have to book in to get a tree made, this may take a month or 2, you also need to allow time for the raw hide to dry, and depending on the weather this also takes time.

These trees aren't cheap, but they are the best quality saddle trees I have found, and well worth the extra $$$s.

Here are just a few of the saddle tree styles that John makes:

Bowman

Buster Welch

Association & Modified Assoc.

Wade

Visalia

Marther Josey

Station Stock

Modified Stock

Traditional Drafter

GLENYS GRIVELL

Phone: 03 50372634  

Fax:    03 50372695

email: kgrivell@bigpond.net.au 

PO BOX 356

LAKE BOGA

3584

VIC