New venture saddles up

Once a stockman in the furthest reaches of the state, Trevor Able would work 14 hour days before he'd get any time to work on his real passion.

AGE OLD CRAFT: Saddler Trevor Able has moved to town and is already up and running with his business, Able Custom Saddles. Picture: Matthew Purcell

ONCE a stockman in the furthest reaches of the state, Trevor Able would work 14 hour days before he'd get any time to work on his real passion in the wee hours of the morning.

He and wife Angela have just relocated to Stanthorpe from Noosa, with Trevor wasting little time in getting the business, Able Custom Saddles, up and going.

"It's all custom work, no mass production,” Mr Able said.

"The trees for the saddles are all custom built by a tree-maker I've got in Mundubbera.

"They just go and custom us specs and I order that, I get the tree and then I start building the saddle on top to what the customer wants.

"Also we're running tuition here - like saddle making courses and basic leather work and carving and stuff like that.”

With saddlers few and far between in the 21st century, he said he's keen to pass on his knowledge.

"I can probably count on one hand how many decent custom saddler's there are in Australia,” he said.

"That's five I know of, including myself.

"There's saddlers out there just slapping them together and punching them out like 10 a week.”

Mr Able usually spends a couple weeks on just one.

Born in Toowoomba, where he completed his schooling, he wasn't allowed to leave until he passed grade 10 with flying colours.

"That was the deal with Dad,” he said. "He had a butcher's apprenticeship lined up but I didn't want to be in town.

"I went up north and was a ringer up there, like a stockman, for 25-odd years.

"Course you're working with horses and cattle all the time so you get to know what gear is decent.

"To go on and build it, felt like a natural progression.”

But his full-time job would get in the way of what his real passion was.

"I'd do station work seven days a week, 12-14 hours a day,” Mr Able said.

"I'd go home and try and do some saddle work and I'd be sitting up until 1 or 2 in the morning.”

He put it on hold until roughly eight years ago when he took it up full-time.

He's proud of what he does.

"I've exported to the US, Italy and everywhere through Australia,” he said.

"One I sent to Texas years ago was $11,000 because it was laden in silver and I had to get a silversmith to do all that for me. There was 180 hours in that one saddle.”

But he's eager to secure some more local work and is already loving his time in town. He and Angela stumbled upon it on their honeymoon several year's ago.

"We just love this place, beautiful country and people are friendly.”

Details

Able Custom Saddles is at 61 Granite Belt Dr, The Summit.

Ph 0488680550.