The art of the custom saddle maker, regardless of style or variation in detail, owes much to the Spanish vaqueros who originally settled the southwest.  Those first settlers were caballeros, a word which describes them perfectly, for it means both horseman and gentleman, and their influence is still felt in modern horsemanship, techniques of working cattle, and in the tack that cowboys use to this day.

Robert Chavez represents the modern culmination of that tradition.  He grew up working along side his father on various ranches.  His experience gave him an appreciation and understanding for the need to create saddles that comfort the horse and rider.

At sixteen, Robert's father encouraged him to build his own saddle to meet the rigorous demands of day-to-day life.  They salvaged pieces of old saddletrees they found abandoned in barns to make their first saddletree.  Some of the leather and wool skin came from animals on the ranch.  They tanned the hide with sumac they gathered themselves.  They built that first saddle by the light of a kerosene lantern.  When it was finished, Robert had found his life's passion and apprenticed himself full-time to a saddle maker in Lewiston, Idaho for two years.

Now, another sixteen years and hundreds of saddles later, R.C. Saddle gladly introduces a line of Wade Saddles designed for the working cowboy, weekend enthusiast, or serious art collector.  His own experience as a cowboy, his knowledge of stress points, the cowboy's requirements, the horse's needs, tradition, and modern innovation, all go into every saddle.  Combining attention to detail, craftsmanship, the finest possible materials, and -- like all great artists-- a passion to continue learning.

Robert and his wife, Chere, a first grade teacher with an equal passion for her own profession, now live in Tehachapi--located in the south-central mountains of California, not far from where his father continues to work as manager of one of the last of the great California ranches.

Proverbs 27:19

Artwork reproduced with permission of Will James Art Company, Billings, Montana.  See at www.willjames.com