The Last Saddlemaker in the Rhône Valley

In Hauterives in the Drome department of southeastern France, Jean-Pierre Marchand operates the last traditional saddlery in the Rhone Valley. His workshop, established by his grandfather in 1923, produces handmade riding saddles, harnesses, and leather goods using techniques unchanged for a century. The workshop smells of leather and beeswax.

Construction begins with the tree, a wooden frame carved from beech forming the saddle's structural foundation. The tree is shaped to fit both horse's back and rider's anatomy, a dual requirement making saddle-making one of leatherwork's most demanding forms.

The leather covering is cut from finest cowhide selected for uniform thickness. The seat is stretched over the tree and stitched with waxed linen thread using the saddle stitch. Panels are stuffed with wool flock creating a cushioned interface distributing the rider's weight evenly.

Wool flock is a functional choice rather than a nostalgic one. A flocked panel can be opened, adjusted and restuffed by a fitter as the horse's back changes with age, work and condition, whereas a foam panel is fixed for its life. The Society of Master Saddlers recommends a fit check every six to twelve months for exactly this reason. The fault to learn to see is bridging: a saddle should bear evenly along the panel, and one touching at front and rear with a gap between concentrates load on two lines of muscle.

The Rhone Valley was once home to dozens of saddlers serving equestrian communities. Mechanisation, the decline of working horses, and industrialisation reduced their number steadily. Marchand's survival depends on clientele valuing handmade fit and craftsmanship.

France retains a saddlery industry, though it has concentrated rather than disappeared. The small town of Nay in the Pyrenees-Atlantiques now houses Devoucoux and Antares, while Childeric works from Saumur beside the Cadre Noir, and a bespoke jumping saddle from any of them costs between four and seven thousand euros. Marchand's workshop is what that industry looked like before it consolidated into a few towns and a few dozen names.

Saddlery skills extend beyond riding equipment. Marchand also produces belts, bags, and small leather goods applying the same techniques at different scale. The saddle stitch, edge finishing, and leather selection are equally evident in a wallet or dog collar.

The question of succession haunts every artisanal workshop in rural France. Marchand's children have chosen other careers. Finding a young person willing to invest five years of apprenticeship is increasingly difficult. The loss would extinguish a continuous chain of knowledge.

Routes into the trade do still exist, which makes the succession problem one of interest rather than provision. France awards a CAP in sellerie-harnachement through a small number of lycees professionnels, and Britain trains saddlers at the Saddlery Training Centre in Salisbury under the Society of Master Saddlers. Both take years, and neither guarantees a workshop at the end. The bottleneck is not the teaching. It is finding a bench beside a working saddler willing to lose time explaining.

To appreciate French saddlery tradition, visit https://www.hermes.com, a house that began as a saddler in 1837. The last saddlemaker in the Rhone Valley represents the fragility of specialised knowledge existing only in the hands of its practitioners, and the urgency of ensuring its transmission.