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About Pete Harry

Master saddle maker and craftsman, Pete Harry, has over 25 years experience in building custom-made saddles, horse equipment and gun rigs. A bachelor's degree in Equine Animal Science helps him design the most anatomically correct equipment for your horses and you. His education did not stop with the degree from Murray State University. He has continued to study his craft through books, videos, professional journals and classes in metal engraving and horse shoeing. His hobbies of trail riding and cowboy shooting add firsthand experience to his work. Pete is a founding member of Cowboy Regulators, a cowboy-action shooting club in western Kentucky, which includes mounted shooting and historical reenactment extending to the Civil War period. He has made many of the gun rigs used by the club members and he has made rigs for cowboy shooters across the United States.

Pete has been giving instruction on horsemanship, horse care and leather work for many years. As his workload permits, he takes students one at a time for a month long saddle-making school. He has taught classes for Southern States Feed Cooperative on horse anatomy and training with emphasis on how horses learn. Local 4-H groups visit his shop regularly for instruction in leatherwork. He instructed Special Forces soldiers on riding and packing pack trains in preparation for military duty in Afghanistan. As a U.S. Army veteran, Pete had a special interest in helping those soldiers with things that would save their lives and help them have successful missions.

Another area of work that has been very important to Pete is fitting saddles for handicapped individuals. He has helped several people dealing with paralysis, loss of limbs, debilitating disease, etc. to be able to ride and enjoy their horses and receive this valuable mental and physical therapy. He did this by devising various braces and straps to assist them that couldn't be seen. This gave them even more pleasure.

In 2004, Pete was an instructor at Ride-A-Side (sidesaddle convention) in Lexington, Kentucky. He taught fitting of sidesaddles and types of sidesaddles. Many of the attendees owned saddles that he built for Hundred Oaks, Inc, Graham, North Carolina. He has assisted museums in Gallatin, Tennessee, and Hopkinsville, Russellville and Cadiz, Kentucky with restoration and cataloging of leather equipment and guns. Pete is also a long-time judge of horse shows in western Kentucky and Tennessee. He has judged Quarter Horses, Tennessee Walkers, Morgans, Saddlebreds, Foxtrotters and Arabians.

Pete also enjoys owning and riding motorcycles. This has led him to design special leather equipment for his bike and those of his friends-such as tank bra straps, fork bags, custom saddlebags and custom seat work. He now offers these for sale to his customers.