Starks Saddlery
(541) 536-9503
Inside The Saddle Shop
La Pine man turns his talent as a saddle maker into a second career
By Heather Clark / The BulletinPhotos by Anthony Dimaano / The Bulletin
George Stark hand tools all the designs on the saddles and other leather ware that he creates. He says no two saddles that leave his La Pine shop are the same. Stark's saddles range from plain, working ranch varieties to pleasure and show saddles adorned with silver plates. Stark says he uses 2 cows worth of leather to build one saddle. Saddle maker George Stark tools leather in his La Pine shop, Stark Saddlery. The 51-year-old retired from a long career as a horseshoer before opening the shop last June. George Stark's signature stamp adorns one of the Western saddles custom built in La Pine.
LA PINE - A small, green sign with white letters hanging over the door says simply SADDLE SHOP.
Inside this humble cove adjacent to the La Pine Feed and Tack store are shelves lined with clear, plastic boxes containing rivets, brackets and conchos.
Piles of leather pieces are wrapped in bags stored under a workbench, while the pegboard above anchors cutting and shaping tools in dozens of sizes.
In the rear of the shop, rolls of flat leather, each representing half a cow, stand along a wall.
The rich aroma of leather and saddle oil permeate the air.
To the walk-in customer, it's a shop brimming with leather. To George Stark, it's art.
After 31 years perfecting his other art - shoeing horses - Stark is spending his golden years handmaking Western riding saddles and other horse-related leather works such as bridles, breast collars and chaps.
Stark, 51, grew up watching his dad ride and train thoroughbred race horses in Southern California, while George took up showing quarter horses.
After high school, Stark followed his dad to Coos Bay, where the younger Stark began working as a farrier.
Although he loved his work, three decades of lifting hooves, dodging kicks and bending over took its toll on Stark's back and hips. In 2004, it was time to retire.
"I made a good living shoeing horses," he recalls. "I loved it, but it just got to where it hurt."
But Stark wasn't ready to leave the horse world. In fact, for years he had a strong desire to learn saddle making.
About five years ago, Stark attended saddle schools in Arizona and Coos Bay, and he found he had a keen knack for leather works.
"I wanted to learn how to do everything," says Stark, sporting a black felt hat and thick black and white beard.
Back in Coos Bay, Stark opened a saddle shop in his barn.
"I was shoeing horses during the day, and building saddles at night and on weekends," he recalls.
Last June, after he had retired to La Pine, the leather maker opened Stark Saddlery. He operates the one-man shop full time.
The benefits of a custom-built saddle, says Stark, are comfort and fit, not only for the rider but for the horse as well.
"My teacher was very adamant about building comfortable saddles," notes Stark.
Mass-produced Western saddles like Tex Tan and Circle Y, however, are less expensive and ready to purchase and take home.
"I never liked that," says Stark of one-size-fits-all, machine-built saddles. "I like the real deal. It's part of our heritage. I like to see a horse and rider in a nice saddle. It just looks good."
And Stark really likes building a saddle for that hard-to-fit mount like "the ol' round-back mutton-withered quarter horse," he says. "They're big and they're wide and have a problem with the saddle interfering with their shoulders."
To build a saddle, Stark begins with the tree, the saddle's foundation and key building block. The saddle maker takes measurements of the rider in the saddle and is then able to specify to his supplier how the tree is to be constructed. Next, he works on alleviating the saddle's potential pressure points, from knees and ankles in the stirrup to the lower back, rear and hips in the saddle's seat.
"The whole idea is to make a saddle that is comfortable for (the rider) and their horse," he says, adding that each custom saddle reflects the rider's individual style. "There's no two saddles that go out of here the same."
Stark says a lifetime of riding has helped him help others find a comfortable fit in the saddle. And, he says, a handmade saddle investment will likely last long enough for grandchildren to enjoy.
The La Pine saddle maker prides himself on quality and attention to detail, traits he says he learned while shoeing horses. A typical Western saddle takes about two months to build, and a base model runs about $1,850.
Stark has a few premade pleasure and working ranch saddles in his tiny showroom, along with other horse-related leather ware like bridles and breast collars. At his workbench, he shows off a hand-tooled Western belt with an acorn and maple-leaf pattern that is half completed.
"I didn't realize I had it in me," reflects Stark on his new career.
And for Stark, whether it's breaking a colt, scrolling a basket-weave pattern on a saddle or shaping a horseshoe, life is about achieving the best results he possibly can.
"It almost becomes a religion (for me)," he explains. "And we seem to have lost that in America. Everything is mass-produced, thrown away when it's worn out. I've never bought into that."
Heather Clark can be reached at 541-383-0352 or at hclark@bendbulletin.com.
INFO: 541-536-9503
For more information on Stark's Custom Saddles and Leatherwork's,
visit George's Web site at starksaddlery.com