Trail’s End Saddle Shop

Edition Six Feature
Words by: Ben Geisler
Location: Level Plains, Alabama, USA 
Photo Credit: ©Seacat Creative @seacatcreative

Born into the rodeo world, Ben Geisler grew up on the back of a horse and had an early interest in the cowboy art of leatherwork. He took the long way round before returning to his first passion and today pursues new heights each day as a Western saddlemaker.

What is it that you do and how do you do it?

I am a Western saddlemaker, professional leatherworker, silversmith and hand engraver. I predominantly make saddles, although one of the things that I believe as a craftsman is that no matter how good you get at what you do, you’re still going to have to do some amount of work that you don’t want to do. And if you’re going to sell your soul, you need to make sure you get paid well enough to buy some fraction of it back. That said, I’ve got to the point now where I’m busy enough with saddles that I largely turn down work that doesn’t interest me.

I’ve been working at this for nearly 10 years, but in relative obscurity until about 2021. It’s only in the last year or so that I’ve gained any real notoriety – it went from nothing to more than 100,000 Instagram followers and media attention too.

So how did your interest in saddle-making begin?

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