Hugh Bryant bought his Equaliser Western Drafter Saddle in 2004, and he reports each year that it’s going well. It’s been through a few tough times, horses have gone over on it and according to Hugh, it’s required “very little maintenance” and adds with a grin, “I can’t say it helps me stay on when a horse drops out from under me!”
Hugh went to Humbert River from Toowoomba, Qld, as a teenager just out of school, and now as a young man, he’s a leading and valued member of the stockcamp. When visiting Humbert you’d think he’d been born and raised in the North – the Territory ‘talk’ is unmistakable! When Hugh goes on to say “We’ve got a camp full of them, they all seem to be going well, they’re comfortable and all the accessories are good”, we take that as a compliment!
Not long before we called at Humbert River in ‘07 one of the ringers (won’t mention any names!) accidentally backed over a wing of saddles left on the ground. We were pleased to be told that our saddles received only minor damage, and the only saddle suffering a broken tree was another brand.
Hugh hadn’t had his saddle long when it went ‘walk about’ on the back of a runaway colt in very thick scrub at Dungowan, a nearby CPC station. Horse and saddle were both retrieved a fortnight later, with everything intact and A-OK (saddle cloth, saddle bag, and quart pot included). If runaway horses and saddles could talk, what stories we would hear!