Fred Harsant is a renowned saddle maker from New Zealand who was inducted into the Cowboy Hall of Fame. He has been making saddles for over 74 years using only hand tools based on styles from 1840-1940. His saddles are renowned for their precise fitting to both horse and rider to maximize comfort, balance and coordination. After moving to the United States, he established saddle making schools to teach his techniques focusing on tree making and fitting to horses to pass on his legacy.

1. Fred Harsant
Cowboy Hall of Fame inductee
Entering Fred Harsant’s workshop is like taking
a step back to the 1800s. There is not a power
tool in sight. Well-worn and much-loved hand
tools used to cut leather and carve western sad-
dles, tools that haven’t changed for centuries,
fill every available space. Hand-crafted wooden
saddle trees fill one wall and hang from ceiling
beams; other walls are papered with patterns for
saddles. A feeling of peace pervades this orderly
work room where ancient saddles sit on racks,
saddles at various stages of completion sit on
wooden horses and saddles sit on saddles. Eve-
ry old saddle tells a story and many have been
teachers. The smell of leather and the sight of a
master craftsman quietly focussed on his work
are reminders of a simpler time.
The saddler himself is a vision of the old Ameri-
can West. Tall and rangy, he wears his cowboy
garb with pride. Starched jeans, cowboy boots
so shiny I can see my reflection in them, loud
checked shirt and nattily-knotted neckerchief.
Fred Harsant’s welcoming smile is almost as
wide as his Stetson as he grasps my hand in a
special ‘thumbs up’ handshake. He invites me
in, the American twang his of his slow, attractive
drawl almost hiding his native Kiwi inflections.
Nothing is impossible
‘Nothing is impossible,’ reads the hand-written
sign in Fred Harsant’s workshop. That sign is
dated 1950 and it expresses Fred’s heart-felt
attitude to life and to saddle-making.
Fred specialises in making old time saddles, the
style of which date from 1840-1940. There may
be other saddle makers somewhere in the world
who make this style of saddle, but not one com-
bines making the tree as well as the saddle with
fitting saddles to both horse and rider. Fred’s
love of the Old West and the seventy-four years
he has spent perfecting his craft brought him to
the attention of the National Cowboy Western
Heritage Museum (formerly the Cowboy Hall of
Fame) in Okalahoma City in the USA. He has
donated items to the Museum archives, includ-
ing a copy of his booklet Saddles of the Old
West, and is in the process of being inducted
into the Museum’s Hall of Fame which honours
and memorialises the men and women who
have, through their exemplary lives, careers and
achievements, embodied and perpetuated the
heritage of the American West.
A Fred Harsant saddle
fits so well the rider
can mount with the
girth unfastened.
Words and photos:
MaryAnne Leighton

2. ‘Christened by kelp’
Fred was one of five children raised by Horace
and Florence Harsant on a remote 10,000 acre
farm on new Zealand’s beautiful Coromandel
Peninsula. Fred’s mother was an exceptional
woman, a true pioneer and the author of a book
that described three remarkable journeys she
made on horseback, mostly on her own but
with an occasional Maori guide, in 1913 and
1914 when she was in her early 20s. Florence
covered a distance of more than 1600 kilome-
tres through Northland, around the East Coast
of the North Island and down the Wanganui
River. These journeys came as a result of her
fluent command of the Maori language which
led to her appointment as Maori Organiser for
the Women’s Christian Temperance Union. Flor-
ence had grown up in a Maori community where
her father was the school teacher. The men of
the community had a smattering of English; the
women and children none. As a child herself,
Florence naturally and effortlessly absorbed the
Maori language, the stories of the elders and the
day-to-day social patterns of the people. These
remained imprinted in her mind in photographic
detail and she later recorded them in her book,
They Called Me Te Maari, which was published
in 1979.
In her position as Maori Organiser, Florence
was required to ride from one isolated Maori set-
tlement to another, forming local WCTU groups
and teaching hygiene and child care. This was
a formidable undertaking for a young white girl,
made more difficult by the poor communications
of the period. The Maoris of 1913 and 1914
lived often at little better than subsistence level
in mainly rural communities. Roads were poor or
non-existent and settlements were often linked
only by extremely hazardous tracks barely
negotiable on foot or by horseback. Drunken-
ness was rife especially in milling townships and
gum diggers camps, and Florence often had to
contend with smallpox in many of the isolated
communities she visited.
When Florence met and married Horace, she
described her first view of Harhei, the 10,000
acre farm where she would raise her family,
‘Spread out before me was a scene of breath-
taking beauty. The blue, blue sea with several
bush-clad islands off the shore… The valley
itself, with pines outlining the paddocks, weep-
ing willows here and there lending grace to the
scene… This is to be my home!’ The property
was remote and rugged and the Harsants ran
cattle and sheep on it, using horses for work
and transport. They made or grew almost
everything they needed. Heavy goods had to be
delivered by sea which was their main highway.
Florence baked bread, made soap and butter (if
a cow happened to be available), and Horace
killed their own meat and made and repaired
harness.
Fred was born into this paradise in 1920 and
when his birth was imminent, Florence made
her way to Auckland. The first twenty-five miles
took a day’s riding over steep and treacherous
hills. First thing the next morning she caught
a Cobb and Co-style coach driven by a Boer
War connoneer (the man who loaded and fired
the cannon) who had only one speed - fast - to
connect with a coal-burning steamer that raced
up the Manukau Harbour and reached Auckland
that same night. Florence and the newborn Fred
returned to Harhei by steamer and Fred chuck-
les as he relates how a seaman dropped him
overboard during the transfer to the scow which
would take mother and baby to shore. Fortu-
nately he landed on a drifting mat of kelp where
he safely floated until he was rescued.
At soon as he was old enough to hold a candle,
Fred held the flickering light by which his father
worked leather at night and Horace taught Fred to
make thread from manilla hemp – now outlawed
because of its connection to cannabis. Fred inher-
ited his mother’s love of horses and by the time
he was five he was big enough to ride his own
horse and accompany his mother to town. When
he was six he was working stock and by the age
of eight he says, ‘The job was all mine.’
Introduction to the Old West
Between 1926 and 1928, Zane Grey, legendary
author of the Old West, camped and fished near
the Harsant farm. As a fellow author, Florence
made Grey’s acquaintance and introduced
the six-year-old Fred to him. Grey filled Fred’s
imagination with stories of cowboys and Indians
and the romance of the Old West and gave him
books to read, including his own novel Riders
of the Purple Sage, and a book of stories and
pictures by Charles M Russell, a talented author
and one of the great artists of the Old American
West. Fred was instantly captivated and knew
that some day he would make his home in that
part of the world.
He left the little one-room pioneer school at
Harhei when he was eleven saying, ‘I wasn’t
learning a damn thing anyway,’ for the life of a
wild cow hunter and drover. All his life he had
ridden the steep hills of the family farm in an
Aussie stock saddle, which was a good saddle
to keep him seated but it lacked a horn for cattle
work. Somehow he got hold of an old Western A
Fork saddle and pulled it apart, studied it inside
and out and when he put it back together he be-
gan a lifetime of improving the basic design and
simplifying and improving the building of saddle
trees. From this first old saddle he gained the
knowledge he would need to build another the
same, whittled from local wood and covered
with home grown rawhide and leather. He was
only thirteen and would wheel his saddle to the
table and sit in it to eat. This rough but cher-
ished saddle became the prototype of thou-
sands more to come and led to Fred teaching
himself to braid stout rawhide riatas, hobbles,
bullwhips and other gear he needed to get cattle
out of the bush. This first saddle served him well
until about a year later someone offered to buy
it. The rising entrepreneur was quickly in busi-
ness, making one new saddle each year and
riding in it until someone bought it from him and
he’s been building saddles of the Old West ever
since. Fred made his first custom-built saddle in
1935 for a Maori client who came back in 1950
for another, part-exchanging the original saddle
which Fred still has.
A young Fred in action at a rodeo
in NZ in the early 1960s

3. The difference is in the measuring
Having broken his back at an early age, and
having to ride many different horses in a rugged
and often harsh environment, Fred found that
careful measurements allowed him to build a
saddle that would both give comfort to him and
fit all the horses to best advantage. He says,
‘I had a great many horses and I learnt off the
horse - I never learnt from anyone else.’ He
learned early the value of riding ‘straight-up’,
feet beneath him, hollow-backed and weight for-
ward. His centre-ride saddle seats, riggings and
stirrup leathers are designed and set for the ut-
most coordination, balance and comfort for both
horse and rider. He says, ‘A good saddle starts
with designing the tree to eliminate sore backs
and pressure points, horse and rider stress,
to get around the need for multiple pads, to fit
riggings that will hold the saddle in the correct
position without over-tight girths, to provide the
utmost in strength without bulk and to provide
balance, security and comfort for both horse
and rider.’ During the 1930s Fred’s self-taught
expertise was recognised when he met some of
the largest and most important saddle makers in
the USA and Australia.
His unique knowledge of making and fitting sad-
dles meant that, when World War II broke out
and the nineteen-year-old Fred joined the army,
he stayed in NZ as a cavalry instructor. After the
war he felt he had to move on saying, ‘I was a
square peg in a round hole.’ Taunted and called
a ‘damn Yank’ because of his use of a Western
saddle and love of the Old West, Fred accepted
a job at the world’s largest cattle station, Victoria
River Downs in the Northern Territory. He says,
‘I couldn’t wait - seven million acres, thousands
of horses and cattle and over two hundred
Aboriginal stockmen.’ He was supposed to ar-
rive in Brisbane then drive horses another two
thousand miles to get to the station but those
plans changed almost overnight. ‘Some folks
in a travel trailer came for a visit and Joan was
among them. There were eight of us fellows, but
I guess she liked me the best.’ That was the end
of the job at Victoria River Downs. Joan, who
had never been on a horse, soon became a top
rider. They married in 1947 and started their
own farm close to Fred’s family, running cattle
on almost 4000 acres.
In 1950 their daughter, Christine, was born and
about that time they started their first saddle
making school. Son Steve was born in 1956
and daughter Debbie followed in 1963. Fred
says, ‘Each was put on a horse before they
could walk. I would put them on behind me with
the back saddle strings tied to the horn so they
wouldn’t fall off. When they got their balance
I started them bareback on their own.’ In the
1950s Fred and Joan introduced American-style
rodeo to New Zealand and by 1962 they had
added calf roping and bronc riding. All the sum-
mer months they travelled, putting on rodeos
on the weekends and working all week at home
with cattle and saddle making. Sleep was a
luxury.
Move to the USA
By the end of the 1970s Fred had shipped many
fine custom saddles throughout New Zea-
land and Australia and sent more to the USA,
Canada, Hawaii and other parts of the world.
Until then he had resisted the pull of the Ameri-
can West but finally, in 1979, he could no longer
deny this insistent urge to live in the place his
saddles originated. By this time he knew a lot
of people over there so, with his family, went to
USA to have a look. He was offered sponsor-
ship and felt that the States seemed ready for
his way of doing things so the family returned to
New Zealand, sold everything and in 1981 Fred,
Joan and Debbie moved to Alpine, Arizona. He
put a 2” x 2” ad in Western Horseman, received
300 enquiries in the first two weeks and subse-
quently earned enough money to set himself up.
He received a Green Card in 1982 after proving
he was not taking work away from an American
and was doing what no one else in the States
was doing, that was making trees and saddles
and fitting saddles to both horse and rider.
He arrived at a time when there was a move-
ment among many aficionados of the Old West
to save the comfort, durability and heritage of
the old Western saddles. Fred made classic
Old Time and cowpuncher saddles for ten years
before moving to Oregon in 1992 and starting
up his schools again. Still he and Joan felt they
hadn’t found a place that was right for them.
Again they moved, to Parachute, Colorado in
1994 (and more and more successful saddle
making schools) and this brought them a step
closer to their dream. Then in July 1997 they fi-
nally ‘came home’ to Grand Junction, Colorado.
However, a short four years later, Fred and
Joan arrived in Australia. They have settled at
Jimboomba in south East Queensland where
Fred continues to make old time saddles and
has re-established his saddle and tree making
schools.
Fred Harsant saddle and
tree schools
Fred’s one-on-one concept is the secret behind
his accelerated teaching programme. Of all the
saddle-making schools in the world, only three
teach one-on-one, only three teach tree-mak-
ing and only Fred works with a horse. At Fred’s
school, all students are immediately introduced
to a horse and are given riding lessons and
lessons in human and horse anatomy. Fred
says, ‘The tree and the fit are the main things.
A saddle that fits properly will not sore a horse’s
shoulders and you can mount it without even
fastening the cinch.’
Many of the saddles that Fred’s students craft
are based on classic designs. Some students
learn only tree-making in a school that lasts a
week, some make saddles in two-and-a-half
weeks, some do both. Fred’s saddle school stu-
dents take home about three hundred photos,
a full notebook, a certificate, a saddle valued at
over $3000 and the rights to all Fred’s patents.
And they get to tap into Fred’s help, forever.
He says, ‘My students aren’t just students, but
friends too.’
True beauty lies within and the secret of Fred’s
saddles is in the tree. His trees are fitted unlike
any other tree in the world, allowing for true
unity of horse and rider and utmost comfort
and balance for both. His trees allow for free,
no-pinch movement of the horse’s shoulder
and loin and with the rider forward and his feet
beneath him, perfect balance for both horse
and rider is achieved. Fred says, ‘Balance is
everything. If you ride over the horse’s balance
point you can go anywhere.’ You can ride a
bare wood Harsant tree with no pad and a mere
spider rigging, without rider or horse discomfort.
Cover the same tree with bull hide, use a thin
pad and you can ride the same rigging while
roping anything you can get a loop on.
Fred developed his unique designs over the
course of his seventy-four years as a saddle
maker, horseman, drover, wild cow hunter, tan-
ner, rawhider and leather worker. He tested his
designs over twenty years of active rodeo riding.
He says, ‘The saddle will change your life.’
He expects accuracy and perfection from his
students and adds, ‘I work everything down to
1/64th of an inch accuracy because it is neces-
sary to be that accurate.’ His sharp, experienced
eye picks out the slightest imperfection and de-
tects nearly invisible flaws in his students’ work
and his level of accuracy and pride in his work
is contagious. Throw in a witty sense of humour
and his students have the perfect atmosphere to
learn almost anything, no matter how complex.
Fred is proof of the power of positive think-
A Fred Harsant saddle
fits so well a rider can
mount with the girth
unfastened.
A custom saddle made in Australia and sent to the USA

4. ing and he never gives up. He finds himself
moulding his students the same careful way he
moulds his trees, teaching them to ‘walk tall,
ride tall and never, never give up.’ There is a
large mirror in his workshop, seen behind him
in the photo at the beginning of this article. He
says, ‘I tell my students, there’s someone I want
you to meet and I want you to give your friend
in the mirror a smile. If you smile at that person
every morning, you get a smile back every
morning.’ Students work in front of the mirror so
they can see both sides of their saddle but it is
amazing how reluctant the majority of them are
to smile at themselves. He tells the reluctant
ones, ‘I am not going to help you unless you are
prepared to work on your principles.’
Fred’s students learn how a saddle should fit a
horse and what to do if it doesn’t. He teaches
the forty or more different, distinct major hand
operations necessary to create a saddle and
these are all done using hand tools, the old way.
The result is a very finely hand-crafted saddle
suitable for the show ring, for stock work or as a
showpiece in the living room.
One of his Canadian students commented,
‘When I first climbed into my new saddle to go
for a ride, I was amazed at the comfort and con-
trol I had in it. The saddle is designed so you sit
closer to the horse. It sure makes a difference. I
grew up riding horses bareback. This saddle felt
very similar to that but with more control. It felt
very right.’
Looking forward
Sometimes you have to look back in order
to look forward. During a time of tremendous
change in a rapidly-expanding world, too many
great artisans are going, or have gone, to the
grave, taking priceless secrets with them. The
old style way of building a saddle is a dying art
and Fred Harsant runs his unique saddle and
tree and schools to try and preserve a vanish-
ing part of our heritage and to ensure that these
old hand skills do not disappear forever. He is
anxious to keep the saddle-making tradition
alive and is keen to pass on his knowledge.
‘Whoever wants to learn, I’ll teach them the old
style of building any saddle and any tree they
ever dreamed of.’ However, he is offering only
one saddle school and one tree school in 2008.
Fred could write a book on what he knows about
old time saddles - and he is. He began it in 1933
(when he was thirteen) and wants to finish it and
make his dream of a saddle museum a reality
by his 90th birthday in 2010. He also wants to
travel and speak at shows, expos and seminars.
He says he owes his success in following his
dream to his parents, his wife and children. ‘For
whatever I may have achieved in knowledge
and craftsmanship, much credit is due to my
whole family for their support. They’ve always
believed in my work.’
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