OUT OF ADVERSITY
Enforced convalescence to recover from injury resulted in the district’s Dan Kingsley creating a thriving saddlery business. To relieve boredom he started carving leather which in time drew him to harness making.
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There is currently no Australian trade training in harness making, so Kingsley sought out reputable saddlers from whom to learn. He had to create from scratch all the templates for various components to create a saddle. Kingsley focuses on the western style saddles suitable for the day-to-day work of Australian stock horses and quarter horses together with competitive events such as campdraft, team penning and team sorting.
The saddle trees used by Kingsley range from wooden hoop pine covered with raw hide to lighter weight synthetic materials. Leather is imported from the famed US tanners, Hermann Oak established in 1881.
Lade Vale Road farm based Kingsley Custom Saddlery now has a dedicated workshop and shop front that will include a new line of custom designed silver buckles and harness trimmings. Check it out on Facebook or phone 0422 699 488.
The order book for custom made Kingsley saddles that include exports to the USA, is full until 2018!
As one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, Benjamin Franklin put it “Out of adversity comes opportunity”.
TEAM SORTING
Local Bruce Hillier has helped organise a team sorting event for Gunning Showground this Saturday and Sunday. So popular is this sport that entries were full by 8am on the day they opened. Kingsley Custom Saddlery is a sponsor.
Come and watch the fun, fast-paced horse and cattle action!
A SPECIAL COLLECTION
District man, the late Gladstone Weatherstone, collected birds’ eggs between the 1920s and 1940s, later collecting birds’ nests in the 1980s and 1990s.
Intent on keeping the collection intact, his son John Weatherstone of Lyndfield Park, finally found an institution equipped to do so in the National Museum of Australia, liaising with NMA Curator (People and the Environment), George Main.
Gladstone Weatherstone was a keen lover of nature, particularly birds, a love that had a profound effect on his sons John and Wayne. Lyndfield Park was transformed from traditional grazing to an oasis of ecological, regenerative agriculture.
The Gladstone Weatherstone Collection is being considered for display in a new NMA gallery of environmental history, due to open in 2020. A copy of the relevant issue of The Museum is at the Gunning Library.
