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Sam Mitchell’s original saddle shop was in his hometown, Sylacauga. Now he has a new shop at his home in Shorter where he spends almost every weekend.

Novelist Mary Webb once said "Saddle your dreams before you ride ’em." But what if your dreams were saddles, or at least saddle-making? Well, that’s the case for Sam Mitchell, a sales representative for Tarter Gate.

Mitchell, a Sylacauga native, opened his first saddle shop in 1992 and has spent the last 16 years creating cowboy masterpieces.

As a teenager, he probably wasn’t even aware of his talent in designing and making saddles. But, for Mitchell, the road to saddle-making began in junior high school when he first became interested in horses and began riding at a local horse farm.

With an interest in horses, Mitchell began managing a farm for Sta-Green fertilizer in the late 1970s. By the 1980s, his career path led him to Perry Town, Texas, where he was the assistant manager of a 6,000-head feedlot. Incidentally, his boss was a four-time world champion steer roper and while Mitchell’s travels eventually led him from the feedlot, he carried with him a deeper interest in horses and calf roping.

He soon found himself in Oklahoma horseshoeing and calf roping in as many rodeos as time would permit. Spending a great deal of his time in the saddle rodeoing, Mitchell got to know many of the other cowboys and what they looked for in a good saddle.

Since those days, much has happened in Mitchell’s life: he married his sweetheart, Michelle; moved to Shorter and had a little boy, Samuel. Though his life has seen many changes over the last 16 years, one thing has not wavered — his love for saddles.

Mitchell has built a new shop in Shorter where he spends most all of his free time crafting and carving yards of leather into works-of-art.

Much goes into the process of making saddles. First, Mitchell collects the dimensions and specifics the customer desires. Then the leather must be cased, or placed in water and soaked overnight, before it can be worked.

Next, the softened leather must be designed. After reading several books on the topic, Mitchell has learned to build his own designs. Mitchell uses "tap-outs," or leather cutouts that have been shellacked, and a tool resembling a rubber mallet to "tap" the cutout’s design onto the cased leather. He spends the following 150 hours tooling, or carving, the desired design onto the leather. He also uses another method for designing called basket stamping, which is much easier than tooling and takes half the time. This look creates a three-dimensional basket weave look on the leather.

After the designs are complete, Mitchell sews the leather pieces together. Using a saddle tree, which is essentially a saddle-building template, he is able to build the saddle according to the proper measurements for each individual customer.

His skill in saddle-making has brought him business from all over the United States. While he has built saddles for several Alabamians, including individuals like former Auburn football coach, Pat Dye, many of his customers are from out West.

Sam Mitchell stamps all of his work with his logo. Mitchell’s logo can be found on saddles he’s made and sent all over the U.S.

Mitchell spends almost 150 hours "tooling" his saddles. Everything he builds, he builds to heirloom quality.		After Mitchell finishes tooling the designs onto the leather, he sews each piece of leather together.
Right now, his saddles sell for $2,500-$4,000. Mitchell is a bit of a perfectionist and his work reflects standard for perfection.

"Everything I build, I build to heirloom-quality standard," Mitchell said. "I want to build something that is going to be handed down over the generations."

While saddles are his forte, Mitchell makes other leather goods like photo albums, Bible covers, checkbook covers and gun scabbards, just to name a few.

When he’s not working in his shop, spending time with his family or playing golf, he’s back in the saddle. Mitchell still enjoys calf roping. In fact, he has several calves he practices on and he relies on Taleecon Farmers Co-op and Elmore County Exchange to meet their health and nutritional needs.

Whether he’s riding in one or making them, Sam Mitchell has a passion for saddles and it’s fair to say he’s "saddled his dreams."

Grace Smith is an associate editor for AFC Cooperative Farming News.