Cowboy Saddlery

Had it not been for a saddlemaker who had fallen behind in completing his orders, Keith Valley might not have entered the profession himself. In the 1980s, while living in Alabama, Keith put down a deposit on a custom saddle, and then learned the maker already had a long backlog of incomplete orders.

Instead of settling in for an indeterminate wait, Keith struck a deal. The maker provided Keith the materials for the saddle, and Keith tackled its construction. Once he completed work on his own saddle, Keith began helping out in the saddle shop, and eventually launched his own career as a saddlemaker, learning his craft largely through trial and error.

“There wasn’t any information out there on building saddles,” he says. “I’d heard of other saddlemakers starting out and going into shops to ask questions, only to have the older, veteran makers hide their work. It was a secretive thing, and older craftsmen protected their knowledge to the point that questions weren’t welcome.”

Keith and his wife Anna moved to Billings, with the belief that living among Big Sky saddlemakers would help him advance as an artisan. Two years after his arrival in Montana, he scored a three-month stint studying under Billings-based Chas Weldon, and engineered a meeting with TCAA saddlemaker Steve Mecum.

“I’d heard Steve was pretty easygoing,” Keith says, “so I just drove to his house in Wyoming, introduced myself, and told him I wanted to talk to him about saddles.”

Keith applied for and earned a TCAA scholarship to study with Steve, who helped Keith develop his skills with tooling and design layout, and began offering critiques of works in progress. The two continue that student-teacher relationship today.

“It’s really a trickle-down effect,” Keith says. “When I visit with Steve, he shares what he knows, but he’ll also relate what he learned from [Idaho saddlemaker] Dale Harwood. I’m producing better and better saddles, and the consumer certainly gets a better deal.”

Photo by Western Horseman Photographer Adam Jahiel

On May 13th 2008, Keith Valley was very honored to recieve First Place in the first ever Don King Memorial Saddle Competition - Open Advanced Sheridan Style Floral division.

Keith's current projects include producing a new DVD, The Art of the Western Saddle. Be sure to drop a line and get your name on the now growing waiting list.