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Staff photo by E.J. Harris
French saddle maker Pedro Pedrini will be teaching his leather-working skills at the Hamley’s new saddle academy in Pendleton.
An immigrant story
French saddlemaker to teach at Hamley’s academy
By KATHY ANEY
East Oregonian
P
edro Pedrini knew he was born to make
saddles. It just took a while to convince
everyone else.
Pedrini powered through, over and around
some major barriers on his way to becoming
one of the world’s elite saddlemakers. The
easygoing Frenchman with a horseshoe
mustache recently moved to Pendleton to
instruct at Hamley’s new saddle academy.
Earlier this week, he agreed to sit down and
chat about his ascension from dreamer to
master saddlemaker. Surrounded by the tools
of his trade and the aroma of leather at the
Hamley saddle shop, he let his stories roll in
a soft French accent.
Pedrini said he discovered horses as a
10-year-old after one of his father’s friends
started a dude ranch nearby at the base of
the Alps in eastern France. The boy hung
out with horses, became enamored with
the cowboy life and learned about saddles,
bridles, stirrups and the other tack. He
considered working with horses for a career
until his father objected.
“He didn’t want me to do that, so I went
to school to be a machinist,” Pedrini said.
After graduation, Pedrini worked in a
machine shop until sidelined by a forklift
accident in 1971. Soon after, the 20-year-old
had a eureka moment that changed
everything. As he walked down a sidewalk
in Geneva, Switzerland, he stared through
the window of a gun shop at a beautiful
leather holster.
“I fell in love when I saw that holster,”
Pedrini recalled. “The light came on.”
He walked inside and asked who had
made the holster and got the address of the
leather artist whose shop was close by.
“I walked straight there,” Pedrini said.
“The leather carver, Carlo Candolfi, had red
hair and a big beard and he invited me in.”
He asked Candolfi to teach him the trade
and the artist agreed. Over the next weeks
and months, Pedrini learned to carve leather.
Eventually, with the idea of making
western saddles, he decided to look across
the pond for a chance to learn the craft.
Pedrini knew he couldn’t major in saddle
making at a college or trade school. That’s
just not how it worked — those programs
didn’t exist.
“There were no formal saddle making
schools. There were no degrees,” Pedrini
said. “There were just a bunch of guys here
and there who’ve been doing it for a while
who agreed to teach others.”
He mailed letters written by an English-
speaking friend to 10 American saddle
shops, asking if he could apprentice. Only
three replied and they all said no. One return
letter was from David Hamley, one of the
owners of Hamley’s in Pendleton, who wrote
that the shop couldn’t take him at the time.
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
A Western concho adorns the side of
one of Pedro Pedrini’s saddles. Pedrini
learned Western saddle making from
saddle maker Eddie Brooks of the J.M.
Capriola shop in Elko, Nevada.
This Pedro Pedrini saddle,
crafted for the Traditional
Cowboy Arts Association event
in 2013, sold for $76,000.
Contributed photo
In 1978, Pedrini decided to go to the
United States anyway. Armed with a letter in
English explaining what he wanted, he began
visiting saddle shops. Texas saddle maker
Eddie Brooks of the J.M. Capriola shop in
Elko, Nevada, finally took him on. With
Brooks, Pedrini learned both saddle making
and Texas English.
Relationships with other saddlemakers
followed as he bounced around the U.S.,
Canada and France. During one lean stretch,
he and another aspiring saddlemaker slept
in a pickup truck as they searched for jobs
in Canada. From dozens of saddlemakers,
Pedrini soaked in ideas on technique and
design. He settled in Northern California
in 1990, bought horses and started his own
shop. He became an American citizen in
1992. Slowly, his work started garnering
attention and winning awards such as the
coveted Saddlemaker of the Year award at
the Academy of Western Artists in 2008. In
2009, he launched a saddle school called the
Western Leather Academy in California.
Pedrini’s saddles run from simple to
wildly intricate. One saddle sold for $76,000
— it featured $40,000 in silver.
His passion for saddle making didn’t
consume every moment. Pedrini became
a husband and father. He still plays his
collection of acoustic and electric guitars,
left over from his days playing in a rock
band in France.
Recently, Pedrini sold his horses and left
California to come to Hamley’s. He never lost
the desire to work for the iconic saddle shop,
which is in its 113th year at its current location.
The Hamley mark started 175 years ago after
young harness and saddlemaker William
Hamley emigrated from Cornwall, England.
The shop has built saddles for a long list of
world champion cowboys and celebrities such
as Gene Autry and Matt Damon and Buffalo
Bill. Pedrini still has the rejection letter he got
from David Hamley in 1977.
“Forty years later, here I am anyway,” he
said, flashing a grin.
Owner Parley Pearce is ecstatic Pedrini
finally made it to Pendleton. He said Pedrini
fits into Hamley’s tradition of training and
developing young saddlemakers.
“I am thrilled to have Pedro here,” Pearce
said. “I consider him to be one of the finest
craftsmen of his kind in the world today.”
Pedrini will teach in an upstairs room that
has workspace for six saddlemakers at one
time. The academy offers 10-week courses
where each student builds two saddles and
shorter three-week sessions with the goal
of building one saddle. Classes begin in
the spring, though the start date is yet to
be determined. Pedrini will customize his
instruction to each student’s experience,
which he expects to vary.
“Some will come having never touched
a knife or a piece of leather. Others will just
want to carve and improve their skill,” he
said. “The idea is to help people achieve
what they want to achieve.”
Pedrini still has plenty of passion for his
chosen profession. Every day, he said, he
studies and learns something new. With each
saddle, he sets his sights a little bit higher.
“The best saddle I ever made?” he said.
“That’s the next one.”
———
Contact Kathy Aney at kaney@eastorego-
nian.com or call 541-966-0810.