Kings Saddlery is providing saddles and ropes for generations to come

Photo Courtesy of King’s Saddlery Facebook page

King’s Saddlery is a staple of downtown Sheridan, WY. Opening in the early 70’s King Saddlery has become a generational business and is often the first place a tourist will stop.

Don King, Co-owner of King’s Saddlery, explains, “Grandma and Grandpa settled east of town after WWII. Grandpa was breaking horses. And when he had time, he would he would tool leather. And he worked for a couple of saddle makers on Main Street. Then he decided he knew more than them and went out on his own. So he rented out a little place across the street next to the Mint Bar, and he just grew from there.”

King Saddlery started with the building at 184 North Main Street. But it wasn’t long until they needed to expand.  After expanding, King Saddlery opened the museum in the early 90’s.

King says, ” A lot of people just come here to see the museum, but they walk through the store. And one of the iconic things is our caps. For some reason that got out of control. And people come in here to just to just buy a cap.”

Although they don’t have a saddle maker right now, King’s Saddlery made its mark on saddles. King adds, “Grandfather was known for the Sheridan style. He’s kind of the guy that perfected it, but it’s with the floral tooling. And he was contracted in the 50’s and early 60’s for the RCA, which is PRCA now, to do their championship saddles. And he just became well known.”

As a complete Western tack store, King’s Saddlery is also known for their ropes. King explains, “It’s our particular equipment for the particular cowboy is basically our motto. And so whether it’s ranchers, professionals, just people that like to do it as a hobby…we sell anywhere between 30,000 and 40,000 ropes a year. Which I want to get that up because it’s becoming a more popular thing now. Especially, because the girlfriends and wives of team ropers decided, you know, instead of sitting around watching the team roping, they do breakaway jackpots now. So breakaway roping is very popular and big jackpot with the ladies.”

King’s Saddlery will also travel to sell their merchandise. For example, they will go to trade shows, State High School Finals, National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas, National Hight School Finals, and Cheyenne Frontier Days. 

King says. “We’re an interesting place. That’s, you know, I was born and raised here. I went away for 30 years and decided to move back two years ago. Now, to keep the empire going. That’s that’s that was my plan. So that’s that’s what I’ll continue to do.”