JR Wenger Custom Saddles is owned and operated by Joey and Katie Wenger. The saddle shop is where Joey places his focus and skill with saddle design, quality workmanship, and production from training saddles to show saddles. Katie focuses on the layout, design, and build of the show headstalls, from full silver show headstalls to ranch pleasure headstalls. Katie also does some of the tooling and design of the show saddles.
The Wenger Family has been a name is a name that has been known in the business world for a long time. It all started with my grandfather Robert Beil who had many different businesses ranging from car lots, auctions and horse sales. My father and mother, Steve and Cindi Wenger took over the horse sale business and started a tack shop. This is where I grew up and learned all about the tack and saddle world. All through high school I worked at my parents store Wenger Saddlery. After I graduated in 1998, I started making leather products such as headstalls and reins. With this knowledge I continued making these products for private label for some of the major companies in the horse industry. All during this time my Father had been importing and selling training saddles under the name “Lakota”. In 2001 he stopped selling the Lakota brand and needed and new supplier. It was at this point that I started to produce the “Western Saddlery “brand for him to sell in place of the Lakota saddle.
From 2001-2009 we had a lot of success with saddle sales. Western saddlery was a great price point on a great product with the best “bang for your buck.” Through out this time people kept demanding the better quality, and by 2009 I made the decision to produce only the highest quality products direct to the consumer market with our “Wenger Leather Works” logo. We use only the best quality materials with the primary focus on fit and performance.
In 2015 we decided to start making our own saddle trees, that way we could further our focus on the fit and performance to the saddle, tree, horse and rider. Through our saddle tree company, we provide saddle trees not only to ourselves but to some of the top saddle companies and makers in the US.
The 2016 year brought another addition to the Wenger family when I married Katie. She is my beautiful wife and mother to our two amazing daughters Jozlyn and Tinsley. With all these changes it has helped to make and mold the company that we are today. We love what we do and are very thrilled with how the business is continuing to grow and change with the demands of our customers. We produce the high-quality custom products that can meet all of their needs.
