Saddlery
In the old days, horses, cows and oxen played a key role on the farm. Before the advent of the tractor and agricultural machinery they pulled everything: the plough, wagons loaded with hay, even coaches. Consequently, it was important not only to keep the actual source of “horse power” in good condition, but to look after the harness of the horses and oxen as well. Together with the smithy and the wainwright’s workshop, the saddlery was an important part of rural industry. The saddlers made bridles, straps, and saddles as well as harnesses for hitching up the animals to the wagons. They often carried out the repairs on the farms, going from farm to farm to do their work. “It’s just like nowadays with agricultural machinery; things need regular service. If something major is broken, work comes to a standstill”, says Hansruedi Blaser, a saddler in the Ballenberg Open-Air Museum.
Irreplaceable work done by hand
Blaser works for a few days during the season in the workshop in the Farmhouse from Lancy GE (551). He often demonstrates how smaller tasks were accomplished, such as how to sew buckles into leather or how to carve the leather for a strap. Many things are still done today in the same way they always were, such as stitching straps, work for which no machine has ever been invented to this day. To make a horse collar, or the body of the collar, is a laborious task which not every saddler can master, either nowadays or in former times. The horse collars have a stitched leather outer casing and are filled with rye straw and horse hair. They must be fitted precisely to the horse’s anatomy.
The saddler’s craft today
Hansruedi Blaser has been running a saddlery for 25 years in Wasen in the Emmental. Although he is a horse harness specialist, his craft is visibly coming under increasing pressure. Competition from Asia is tremendous and Swiss saddlers cannot compete with the low prices of imported goods. Nowadays, they work mainly for horse riders; the working horse has become a rarity. For younger professional craftsmen it is practically no longer possible to make enough new pieces to be able to learn the trade thoroughly. An old saddler from whom Blaser learned how a horse collar is made, said to him: “One you have made a 100 pieces you will more or less understand how to do it”. As is so often the case, it is a craft which requires a great deal of “feel” for the job.
Ballenberg
Swiss Open-Air Museum
Museumsstrasse 100
CH-3858 Hofstetten bei Brienz
Opening hours
10 April to 26 October 2025
10 am to 5 pm daily
