60+ years in business
Founder Bernard W. Holtz

Bernie always had a love for horses and started driving a team at the age of nine. As a youngster, he would go to the movies and watch the cowboys on the screen, wearing fancy saddles on their horses. Shortly before his 30th birthday, he saw a Palomino he liked so very much that he bought it. A fancy horse needed a fancy saddle, so Bernard designed and made his first saddle, mostly at night. Although he had never really seen anyone work with the malleable metal, he taxed his imagination and proceeded to take pieces of a Ford radiator shell, engraving them into fancy articles to adorn his saddle.

He later sold that saddle, initiating what was to soon become a profession. It was not long after that orders from all over the country began flowing into his small shop in Carrolltown. The saddles which Bernie completed were each an "original" in that no two saddles were designed alike, which accounted for many of the nearly 600 hours it took to finish one to his satisfaction. Mr. Holtz admits that he had no idea where to obtain the tools when he first began working with leather and silver, so he made his own! Bernie can boast having made 44 silver saddles in his career, including one one owned by Richard Boone of "Have Gun Will Travel" fame and several for riders in the Pasedena Rose Bowl Parades.

In 1958, he built a shop on his property "where the garden was", and expanded the store to include a wide variety of "everything for the horse and rider". For the next couple of decades he operated the shop, continued to make sought-after silver and leather articles, and with his wife, Leona, raised nine children.

Bernie and Leona along with trainer/rider son Bill and several "little ones" in tow, traveled the country and showed horses for many years, winning hundreds of trophies and ribbons. Bernie met many celebrities along the way including Gene Autry, Roy Rogers and The Lone Ranger; and he and Leona made many lifelong friends.

Bernard sold the shop to his son Gery in 1974. While Gery concentrated on the retail and business end of the store, Bernard did what he loved best- engraving silver and creating handsome unique leather products.

Bernie passed away in 1992, but his beloved business has been expanded to a new store on Main Street by his son, Gery, who continues to own and operate this unique and popular shop.

Holtz Saddle Co. is located on Main Street, just off Route 219 in Carrolltown, PA.