A love for leather

Encampment resident carries on father's legacy of horse tack and leatherwork

Toni Tolle may not be a native to the Platte Valley, having moved to Encampment in February 2018, but she is a native to the world of agriculture and the West. Born and raised in Hereford, Texas, Tolle spent countless hours in her father's tack and saddle shop. Her father made and repaired saddles, horse tack and repaired boots.

"He didn't get too much into the non-tack stuff," said Tolle.

An early benefit to having a father who made saddles was that Tolle used the saddles when showing and riding horses.

"Since I showed horses and rode horses, I used what he made so it made an appreciation for it," Tolle said. "I appreciated the quality that it took for a handmade (saddle) as opposed to buying something factory made."

Tolle had been on a horse for as long as she could remember and jokes that she was riding even before she could walk. That love for horses would eventually lead her out of Texas and into southern Oklahoma, near the city of Ardmore, where she would work as assistant horse trainer to James Payne.

She would eventually find her way back to the world of leatherwork and horse tack. Tolle married her husband in 2010 and welcomed her first of two sons in 2014, but in 2015 her father would suffer a debilitating stroke.

"That's kind of how I got started. He had a stroke in 2015, a pretty debilitating one, and he had a couple chap orders still on the bench and some people had paid for them already, so it's kind of where I actually started my own thing from that. I made those chaps for him, to help him fulfill that and keep that extra money," said Tolle.

Working with the chaps to help out her father, Tolle rediscovered a love for leather and began following a new passion. While her father focused on saddles, tack and boots in his shop, Tolle began branching out with her own leatherwork.

"Growing up, that's one thing I did kind of wish we did more of in his shop, was other stuff that's not solely horse, like bridles and saddles and stuff like that. I kind of like doing the backpacks I make and the chaps are fun. I like doing a little different stuff to push myself," Tolle said.

When she's finished with enough pieces, Tolle will post them to her Facebook page; backpacks, holsters, chaps, saddlebags and more. Following those posts, she'll usually see a few requests for orders come in. Enough to help out with a little extra money. Now that they're in Encampment, Tolle's husband works for the Silver Spur Ranch and she is able to be a stay-at-home mom.

Though she may be pursuing leatherwork that interests her, Tolle still keeps her father's work alive by repairing saddles.

"I do have a couple of saddles to repair. Some of the stuff I'm pretty comfortable with, like it's normal everyday stuff. There's a couple other saddles that are a little more challenging for me," said Tolle.

Repairing a saddle is, mostly, a matter of preventative maintenance. She checks the fenders, where the rider's leg rests, which holds the stirrups and get a lot of weight on them as a rider mounts and dismounts their horse.

"You want to make sure everything's safe. There's what you call the rigs. The dee rings that hold the cinches on, they're held on with rigs," Tolle said. "That's usually something that is wore out and if that gets completely wore out, then your cinch can't be held on and you fall off. You just make sure everything's sound and safe."

Despite spending time in her father's shop growing up and being able to repair a saddle, Tolle doesn't know how to make a saddle. Yet. She just recently applied for, and received, a fellowship from Art of the Cowgirl. Thanks to that fellowship, Tolle will be able to learn saddle making this summer from master saddle maker Nancy Martiny.

 

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