Don Loewen, the creative hands and mind behind Don Loewen Leather Craft, was born into a cowboying family in Merritt. Although his family moved around all over the province, he grew up in the Nicola Valley, a place he has always felt was home.
As a teenager, Loewen’s uncle showed him a saddle that he had made, and that got the wheels spinning in his mind.
“When I was 14, I saw a saddle my uncle had made and that’s when the dreams started,” Loewen reminisced.
He then made his first foray into saddle making by building one for himself. He soon put that saddle to the test by taking on a cowboy job at Canada’s largest working cattle ranch.
“When I turned 16, I left school to work on the Douglas Lake Ranch on a saddle that I had made the winter before,” said Loewen.
Realizing that he had found his passion, and wanting to further pursue leather craft as a trade, Loewen went south of the border to gain a practical education in saddle making.
“At 17 I went to a saddle school in South Dakota for six months,” said Loewen.
“When I returned to Douglas Lake, I set up a shop in the bunkhouse.”
By 21, Loewen had graduated from the bunkhouse workshop to a spot in Bev Ramstad’s western store, where he was located for two years.
In 1982, he married Jody, who he calls his “silent partner and financial backer”, and the couple moved to the Kootenays for nearly a decade before returning home to Merritt. Loewen then began working in the woods as a tree faller, but his heart was always with his saddles and leather work.
“In 1995 I started my saddle business back up, with a few health hiccups along the way and a retail shop uptown… I’m now back home building saddles and other related leather goods,” said Loewen.
Indeed, while Loewen is still primarily a custom saddle maker, he has recently branched out into designing and making other items as well.
“I’ve been making saddles steadily for 30-plus years, I actually just repaired a saddle that I made back in 1981,” said Loewen.
“But, as of late, I have branched out into belts, wallets, journals, and overnight bags. I made a large leather diaper bag that went to Holland, a briefcase that went to Switzerland and a saddle that went to Israel. My customers come from all over, so naturally I’m promoting our small town from here to as far away as the Middle East. And having been born here in Merritt, I want to provide a sense of history of the Nicola Valley and community within our small town. My favourite part of the day is getting the mail and seeing who is around to strike up a conversation with,” Loewen added.
Saddles are a very integral part of an equestrian’s equipment. It must be well built and comfortable, or else it can cause long-lasting issues for both the rider and the horse. Everyone’s needs are different, and so their saddles should also be crafted differently. No two handcrafted saddles are exactly alike, and nor should they be.
“Every saddle is unique in some way,” explained Loewen.
“My most unique order was a saddle for the movie ‘Marmaduke’. All of my saddle designs and patterns are unique to me in that I design and hand cut every piece. The ground seat can be shaped to the individual client to accommodate their needs. I have several commercial sewing machines that can sew up to three quarter inch leather. The trade also requires a lot of hand stitching, which is time consuming but satisfying.”
Loewen spends many hours crafting each of his saddles.
“One of my favourite things to do in this trade is carving unique flower designs… I’ll sometimes work late into the night,” said Loewen.
“I love making cowboy gear and seeing the things I make being put to good use, leather is meant to be used! I have approximately 1,600 or more saddles out there, and I love it when one comes in for repairs that is wore out from lots of miles and hard use. The quality of real leather and that partnered with my skills, means the things I make are going to last. They are things that’ll be passed down to the next generation. This is my lifetime passion.”
