On a ranch in western Montana.

It's not a stretch to see someone that has a close relationship to horses, >>Most horses will hold air if they've got any brains at all.

So you don't try to snow them all the way up at first >>On this particular ranch.

Its owner, Jeff Morrow, has built a life and business that are unsurprisingly directly related to one another.

>>I'm a custom saddle maker, and I also like to make chaps and gun leather and personal items like belts and tote bags and whatever people like.

I really like what I do because the material is so cool.

I just love finding good leather.

>>As owner and operator of shooting star salary in Niarada Montana.

You could say leather work fits right in Morrows lifestyle and the shooting star into his business brand name.

>>I grew up in North Carolina and I was trying to get the horses out of my system.

So I came west, but it just got worse.

I was about 19 then.

We were living on the Blackfeet reservation.

There's quite a bit of these stars called Shooting Stars.

And when you see them, you know, winter's kind of over with, and Summers is going to be right around the corner.

Preferably, I'll make a saddle that will fit a range of horses.

But in the custom saddle business, often you'll get people that will have a horse with a real odd back.

And that's where we come in to get a tree to fit that horse.

My typical customer is somebody who wants to upgrade.

They're tired of their crummy factory built saddle.

For whatever reason, it doesn't fit their horse or doesn't work for them.

But.

But all saddles can be pretty.

It's all about the lines, whether they're decorated or not.

If they have good lines, that's pretty equal to the plane.

one or tooled old one for saddle leather.

It's vege tanned, which means it'll take an impression.

It'll shape really well and it'll hold up really well.

And the best veg I use two American tanneries, Hermann Oak out of Saint Louis, they're.

They're awesome.

They've been around since 1880 or something like that.

And I also use Wicked and Craig, they're out of Pennsylvania and they, they've been in the business to again over 100 years and Hermann I like a little better for the tooling and the Wicked and Craig I like a little better for shaping and saddle makers have this argument all day who's better Wicked and Craig or Hermann Oak in and everybody has their favorite but I'm I like them both for different reasons.

There's a lot of clinicians going around teaching people horsemanship and those guys usually have a nice saddle and I think people see that and buy them.

I think to some degree a lot of the cowboys and Riders and people like that, they're sort of equipment geeks because their equipment heightens their experience quite a bit.

Comfort wise and comfort for the horse too.

And and Chaps are great.

When you got a horse with square wheels, it takes the lumps out a little bit.

I think the factory saddles have gotten, have not up their game, but they've upped their price so that they've got they've their quality still not that great, but their price is getting closer to customs where a custom looks more affordable or more reasonable >>From the tree that forms the base of the saddle to the 3 to 4 layers of leather over a piece of tin to give rigidity to the seat.

The many facets of the leather Western saddle fit right into Jeff Morrow's intent to provide quality custom leather gear for both the weekend rider to the daily ranch hand.

>>This is a modern tree made by Ben Swanke.

It's birch poplar covered in Rawhide.

This is a wood post horn before it has the leather on it and in it's integral with the Fork.

This is the Fork.

This is the Cantle.

Real nice.

Real nice.

Tight stitch work by K.T.

Monson, this rawhide guy.

This will be a tree for a little girl named Allie.

I like this job because I'm making people happy and comfortable, and I hope I'm making horses comfortable too.

My hands are gettin kind of claw-ish crippled and sore, but I still like doing it, and I just.

I think I'll just do it till I can't do it anymore.