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The saddle made to measure
made in France
with French leather.
Our project is based on respect for mankind and the environment, whose essential and unifying values can be found in the proximity of our partners and the choice of a custom-made saddle made in France.
KNOW-HOW OF EXCELLENCE
A workshop at the at the foot of the Pyrenees.
We wanted to put forward the French saddlery know-how to model and manufacture all our leather saddles to measure and half-measures. The 40 years of experience and the exceptional know-how of this factory in the southwest of France make it possible to work with French materials to design aesthetic curves and create technical and performing products. This workshop located near our offices also allows us to innovate and control quality at all times.
In the heart of this Basque workshop, the passionate and experienced leatherworkers select with great care the skins that they cut and assemble. Beyond the aesthetics, it is also the design and manufacturing process that is innovative. Thanks to the optimization of the material via digital cutting which guarantees an ultra precise cut and perfect symmetry. But also, with a sizer and a slitter to facilitate the demanding work of leather craftsmen. Or with a 3D printer for prototyping and a laser engraving machine.
The making of a high end saddle involves many steps done by hand. This work requires an extreme attention to detail to assemble, sew and glue more than 75 pieces together, which represents about 40 hours of work.
In this artisanal workshop infused with new technologies, French saddlers work in a traditional way. They fashion unique pieces with patience, rigor, strength and refinement. Moreover, all Arion saddles have an exclusive number. This ensures an infallible traceability of their manufacture and marketing.
The family-run workshop is also committed to a CSR approach, thanks in particular to a quasi-parity between men and women, the promotion of employment and employees, the treatment and recycling of leather scraps, the use of 100% renewable energy and the installation of solar panels.
NATURAL AND LOCAL ORIGIN
LeatherLeather is an organic, aesthetic and durable material.
95% of the components used in the design of an Arion saddle are natural materials, mainly leather.
Imitated but never equaled, animal leather is a unique and irreplaceable material due to its very structure. Its use and nature are very similar to those of the wood with which our pommels are made. Timeless and elegant, leather has always been a guarantee of quality and resistance, which Arion relies on to dress its high quality and comfortable riding saddles.
And because we demand a premium quality raw material, we only use leathers of French origin 🇫🇷. Our exceptional leathers come exclusively from the food industry. This means that the cattle, raised in France with respect to animal welfare, are slaughtered for their meat. Moreover, we only choose high quality leathers. Because they reflect the animal's experience and testify to its good living conditions.
The animal skin is then recovered, perpetuating a practice that man has been doing since the dawn of time. Thus, the work of the leather represents the oldest activity of valorization of the biowastes. This makes leather a noble and authentic material to be favored when we are part of a sustainable consumption mode.
In addition, leather is exceptionally durable. This is why the life of a well-made saddle is indefinite. A well-maintained amateur rider's saddle will last at least 15 years (with twice-weekly use). A professional rider changes his saddle every two years. His old saddle then enters the second hand market.
At Arion, we have also chosen to offer saddles that can be repaired or modified in their entirety to extend their durability. We also offer products based on natural ingredients to maintain the leather of your saddle for as long as possible.
Because we favor short supply circuits and because we favor companies committed to limiting their environmental impact, our leathers are sublimated in French tanneries that have a unique traditional know-how passed down from generation to generation.
Our grained leathers are treated with vegetable tanning based on chestnut, mimosa or
quebracho. This technique allows us to reduce our ecological footprint on the one hand. But also to obtain deeper colors and a nice patina. The mineral tanning is only used for the back straps to ensure the leather's rigidity and therefore the saddle's stability.
Our soft leathers, with a waxy touch, come from a family tannery. This one produces only on order and supplies the most beautiful luxury houses in France.
As for the nubuck and its velvety finish, it comes from a full grain leather, carefully tanned and finely polished.
ARION
Saddles 100% adapted to you and your horse.
ATLAS
The half size saddles.
A LITTLE HISTORY
The Basque Countryis a renowned land of leather.
Arion riding saddles are made in the Basque Country with high quality leather from French tanneries. They are thus part of a very important leather tradition in the South-West.
At the end of the 19th century, the region lived at the rhythm of agricultural breeding and the leather industry was in full swing. More than 230 tanners and leather workers settled in the province of Labourd. Because it offers a ground favourable to the activity of vegetable tanning, thanks to the presence of sources and the tauzin oak, one of the essences necessary to obtain the tannin.
As time went by, the urban elite developed a passion for the Basque rural world. But also for this iconic know-how around the work of leather. Numerous brands of leather goods, shoes and saddlery were born in the region.
Unfortunately, imports, competition from industrial tanneries, and oak disease tarnished the activity in the 1950s.
However, the leather tradition persists in the region thanks to the saddlery workshops.
For decades, they have been perpetuating a local know-how cultivated by meticulous and rigorous craftsmen.
Committed to the French tanneries and its workshop in the Basque Country, Arion immortalizes this ancestral heritage. And by offering a custom-made saddle made in France, our company contributes to the development of the economy of our territory.