There isn’t a single stoplight in the whole of Coal County, Oklahoma to interfere with the delivery trucks making their way to and from Raber’s Saddlery. So how does a tack production shop is such a remote country town, with a shoestring marketing budget, and no website not only survive, but thrive? It turns out one can still succeed the good-old-fashioned way – by word of mouth.
Robert Raber, with just a small team of local workers, has built a reputation for quality craftsmanship that has traveled far beyond Coal County’s quiet borders. He made his first saddle at the age of 19. Now a husband and father of five, his business is growing and he remains as committed to quality as ever. We are proud to be able to offer you many of his outstanding products on our website – once you’ve used one of his bridles or ridden with a set of his reins, you’ll wonder how you ever got along without them. 
How did you get started?
I got started by growing up in my dad’s boot shop doing leather work at 10-12 years old. I started sewing boot soles on by the time I was 12 and gradually started my own business from the age of 18. After I made my first saddle, it just kept growing. Now we primarily do tack and a few custom saddles. The custom saddles are a very limited part of our business, and primarily either cutter or working ranch saddles.
When shopping for tack, how can a buyer tell if it’s good quality?
The stitching and edges are the first give away of a quality piece of tack versus one that’s not. People should look to see if the stitching is refined and the edges are smooth. If somebody has taken enough time and pride to do that part right, then they probably used a pretty good piece of leather too.
I can look at the leather and definitely tell when I pick it up if it’s quality leather. That comes from spending years working with leather every day. One of the things that you want to look for when you pick up a pair of reins or something, is if they appear raggedy and soft. If they’re soft and raggedy when they’re new, they’re going to get really bad once you start using them.
When you pick up a quality pair of reins, they’ll feel balanced and somewhat oily. One of the things that I notice is – and this is not always true – but many times, if somebody is building tack or reins, and it’s almost dripping with oil, they’re not using the best quality of leather. They’re putting a lot of oil into it to make it feel good.
What goes into creating your products?
To create a quality product you have to start out with quality leather. The most important thing is that we start out using only the finest steer hides. All of our harness leather comes from U.S. steer hides that are tanned in the U.S. by Hermann Oak
Leather Company out of St. Louis, Missouri.
We have a special tannage done just for us at the tannery that has added oils. Our harness leather is a little bit firmer than a lot of leathers, but that adds to the longevity of it. We also have our own proprietary oil mixture that has a blend of neatsfoot oil in it, and each piece goes through an oiling process when it gets to the shop that we feel adds life to the product. That’s the most important part, we build a product that not only looks good, but is very functional, and will stay
that way for a long time.
When we lay a side of leather on our bench, we figure about 40% of that hide is waste, because we are only cutting the very best out of that side of leather – the rest is not going into any of our finished products. You can build a piece of tack that looks good with that other leather, but once you start to use it, it will start to get soft and raggedy – that’s something you won’t find with our products. Also, our hardware is only stainless steel – we don’t use anything that would rust.
We have a 12-step process to build a pair of reins. One of the things that we do is number the reins as we cut them off a side of leather. Then once they’re all finished they’re put back in pairs, side-by-side, just like they came off the hide.
So, you get a balanced pair of reins – there is no difference in weight from one rein in one hand versus the other one in the other hand.
Our premium reins are a heavier grade of rein that have a heavier tail on them – they come from the thickest part of the shoulder. The heavier weight in the tail helps you flip the reins around easier and also makes it a little easier to adjust the length when you are riding.
The two most important things that I feel people look at with our tack is the stitching and the edges. Both play a big part in what sets us apart from a lot of production-line tack. We work really hard on having smaller more refined stitching than what you normally see. It takes longer to make a finer stitch, but it sure does look a lot nicer.
We also hand rub all the edges on every piece of tack we make. First we apply an edge-coat mixture, and then we rub all the edges by hand using a wooden stick that we cut a groove into just for that purpose. It really creates a finished look and feel. We also put a latigo-leather lining in our bridles so that they’re doubled and stitched.

Between just the refined stitching and good smooth edges, I’ve got people who have said from about 40 feet away, “I know who built that headstall.” That’s a pretty big compliment to me!
You’ve mentioned harness leather and latigo, what are the differences between the different leathers?
The basic types of leathers are latigo, harness, and skirting. Each type goes through a different tanning process at the tannery because each is designed for a different purpose.
Latigo leather is designed for things like tie straps. It gets softer with use, and it’s easier to cinch up on a saddle. So, it’s strong, but can remain soft.
Harness leather has more oil impregnated into it, so it’s more resistant. It’s good for areas where you get a lot of sweat, so it works great for headstalls and reins.
Skirting leather is tanned without any oils into it, so you can do your tooling and design work, wet it, and form it to your saddle. Once everything is built, you add your oils into it.
How do you come up with ideas?
We have people that will call with ideas, and we’ll sit down and draw the patterns ourselves – we don’t copy. If somebody comes up with a different idea, we’ll draw the pattern and work with that person until we get what they want. A lot of the ideas come from working cowboys. I’ve picked them up from people who do cowboying for a living and clinicians, just ideas that I see and just try to refine them. That’s where our line has developed from over the years.
We are a small business so we can keep to our quality standards. There are about 6 to 7 people in our company, so I can keep a pretty close tab on the quality. One of the things I tell the girls on the sewing machines is, ‘”If you make a crooked stitch, throw it out now, don’t wait until later.” We want to be proud of everything that goes out of this shop.