2008 is a new beginning for Hill View Farms ® LLC.  Located just 8.5 miles from the farm, Hill View Farms ® LLC will be manufacturing saddles and tack in their new 6,000 plus square foot building located on an 1.5 acres of land west of Springfield. MN.    This new facility will provide an expanded retail store, a huge show room for the Brendup Horse trailers, a manufacturing/assembly room where saddles and tack will be made, an enormous amount of storage space for inventory along with a shipping and receivable area. A state-of-the-art fitting room for horses with stalls and flooring.  An outdoor wash station for trailers and horses and riding arena.  The Springfield air port is located just a mile away and Springfield has a beautiful hotel which includes an indoor swimming pool, for those who wish to fly in for personal consultations.  During the riding season, feel free to join us on the trail camping, as we can provide you with a mount to suit your needs.  It is for the LOVE of the horse and the passion of making things wonderful between horse and rider that drive our vision in providing only the best for the one you love. 

The Evolution of Evolutionary Saddles TM

1987 Cathy and Don are dating and Cathy shares her passion of horse camping.  Cathy came with horses and Don knew then he was in trouble...  But his love and his lack of a lobotomy kept him coming back for more. Don says that the attraction for Cathy is that he had a strong back and a hay baler (actually it was his love for animals, his work ethic and most of all his sense of humor that made her laugh, told Cathy that she met the man of her dreams.

1988 A bite to change history. As Don was cinching up his horse Bill, Bill turned and bit him in the side. This was nothing new, but this time was the straw that broke the camels back.  Bill this time really got a hold of Don and this bite was was though insolated coveralls. Bill had a strong history of this behavior and when Don was mounted up he would have to box Bill in the ears to get him to stop bucking.  (This was a horse that Cathy bought for Don as a calm riding horse, as the horse was when she went to test ride him,, later she discovered that the horse had been drugged!)  Naturally, after Don came into the house with this bite Cathy - then 5 months pregnant, went out and got on this horse bareback, (so as to come off clean and not get hung up on equipment if he got to bucking which he always did with Don).  Well, the horse was perfect and after working him hard for 4 miles. All she could do was pat him and put him away. What did this say?  So was the bucking and biting a clue that something was wrong?  Was it the saddle? Cathy and Don sold the horse - honestly, the next day because of this behavior.  Hind site is 20/20.  How many good horse are sent down the road due to a bad saddle and how many people get injured or worst due to a bad or ill fitting equipment?

1989 With children on the way,  Don and Cathy move away from tent camping and into a pick-up camper.

1990, 1991, 1992 & 1993 After years of pain Don announced that he would not be riding any more due to his painful knees and walking bow legged for days after riding. Don said that he would accompany Cathy on her riding adventures and watch the kids.  It was during this time that Cathy realized something had to be done. She had gotten rid of the bucking horse, as Don rode hers and she got another, but what could be done about Don's knees? 

1994 Don saw an ad for a saddle that made claims about riding for 8 hours and feel just as good as you did before you rode after you got off..  $1,600.00 was a huge sum of money back then, but it would be worth it if Don would be able to ride with Cathy.  They bought their first Delrin Panel saddle and purchased a second for Cathy the following year. The difference was incredible in how easily the horses learned that Cathy trained, as before Cathy had 7 different saddles - for the various horses she rode.

1995 Cathy and Don bought cheep saddles for the kids. The kids  were tough and rubbery, and could manage being sore and besides the kids did not weigh that much, and so the horses could easily take a kid for a nice ride.  Cathy and Don did not realize back then  how wrong they were.  Even with just a little weight in the saddle the ponies would buck if they did not like the tack. Rhea, Kelly and Sonia took dozens upon dozens of nose dives and headers off of all those ponies until, the light came on for Cathy that regardless of weight.... a proper fitting saddle can make the difference in having a child being bucked off or not.  What price do you put on your children's safety?

1996 Cathy began looking for a replacement horse for Pete as he was the worse bucker of them all.  So much so that Rhea refused to ride him.  He also had a horrible sway back.  Cathy found Rhya, who also was a problem horse and upon inspection realized it was a saddle that bothered Rhya and so riding her bare back Rhya did great. Cathy told the people that she was getting her from the problem but at the time they were not in the mind set to accept that the saddle was the reason for Rhya's bad behavior of taking off, running through the bit and needing to be cross tied to be saddled as so not to get bitten. Cathy bought the mare and rode her in the panel saddle with her youngest daughter on behind.  While Rhea rode Cathy's horse - who did not buck even with the a crappy pony saddle on.  But there were still the other two ponies and as the family and horse herd grew Cathy realized that Rhya needed to be Rhea's horse and the only way to ride Rhya was with a panel saddle and they needed three saddles for the children. So phone calls were made.  The company had sense gone to dealers. So Cathy made a call to the nearest dealer.  When ordering Cathy realized that the dealer did NOT know horses nor the parts of the saddle!  They did not know the difference between a cantle and a fork!  How in the heck could Cathy fork over $6,000.00 to someone who could not give a rats ass about the horse or the customer?  So she called the company back and within one month  Don and Cathy - Hill View Farms ® LLC became dealers for the Ortho-Flex Saddle Company.  But it must be noted that it was Don's farming line of credit they borrowed from to buy into this dealership.  As $25,000 loan which needed and had to be paid back at the end of the 1997 farming year they struggled as a young family of 5 just starting to farm, with no real assists to speak of.  It was tough going for the Tauer household.

1997, 1998, 1999 and 2000 With the farming loan paid back and Cathy's reputation with the bank secure, she was well on her way to forming and expanding her company. The children Rhea, Kelly and Soina  were all now riding panel saddles.  And guess what...no more bucking, biting or sore knees! It was then that Cathy pledged that no more horses would dumped off to kill because of bad saddles.  The Tauer family rides and Cathy made good her promise to the horse continuing to expand her knowledge and becoming a certified equine sport massage therapist. She worked hard and with Len Brown designed and developed better saddles and products for the horse and rider.  Her work in marketing and sales earned her the top sales awards for the company bringing in over half of the companies annual revenues.   It was during this time that Cathy drove down monthly to the Original Ortho-Flex Saddle Company in Missouri to pick up saddles, it is also when she and Don took a keen interest in  saddle construction and got to know the employees personally. One of the employees she met was a woman named Cindy who at the time, worked in scheduling and receivables. Cindy is a TALL woman – easily 5’10". She was always beautifully dressed and had the most incredible taste of style - rarely seen on women of her stature. As a seamstress, Cathy noticed Cindy’s clothes and began to ask questions, discovering that Cindy too was a seamstress - but only for herself only. Naturally they both ogled each other’s clothing, looking at the bottom side of each other’s work. A friendship was born.

2001 brought changes in management as decisions within Ortho-Flex, beyond Cathy's control took place.  Determined to continue her quest, Cathy implored Richard Watson to build saddles as he had once done for Len.  Rocking R was in business but again...management from within took Richard down another path leaving Cathy to once again seek out a company who shared her vision. It was also at this time that Cathy was looking for a seamstress to make the leather goods necessary for Hill View Farms  ® LLC  designed and built to Cathy's specifications. The only person who had the skill and design insight that she knew was CINDY! Cathy assured Cindy that she could provide her with enough income to start a home business. The biggest obstacle in launching this new career for Cindy was purchasing the machines necessary for sewing leather. The good equipment is expensive (and if you know a seamstress, you know that they are picky!). At that time neither Cindy nor Cathy had the funds to invest in such equipment, but Cathy’s husband who is a farmer did. Together they figured they could get Don paid back by the end of the year, when his yearly operating loan was due. Don approved and together they called Cindy, only to discover that Cindy in the meantime had spoken to her mother who cashed in several CD’s thus making the loan to Cindy and launching Eldorado Saddle and Tack. In one year, as forecasted by Cathy, Cindy was able to pay her mom paid back with interest. But what about the saddles?

2002, 2003, 2004 Cathy was contacted by American Saddles of Germany. Mr.  Kai Klee.  He too had been working with Len in years past and he had his shirt taken also by Richard Watson.  Being linked in this way, Cathy thought helping Kai out with his project would also help her with hers.  Cathy and her friend Paul, (who was a genius at web site design) came up with the website name for this company "American-Flex" which is still seen today as .com and .net.  While later American Saddles adopted it as their own now as, .uk and they even went so far as to trade marked it in Germany and took the Ortho-Flex Pegasus horse, making it a unicorn as their logo. Improvements were made to the panel function and marketing was underway.  Hill View Farms ® LLC  again generated revenues for American-Saddles that represented over half the companies gross profits.   It was also during this time that repairs needed to be made to the saddles - as shipping over-seas was ineffective. So Cindy was employed by American Saddles to do this, as they worked out a relationship it became clear that they did not see eye to eye.  Caught in the middle Cathy had to choose sides and she chose to side with Cindy (Eldorado Saddle and Tack).  That decision cost her dearly as Kai refused to either return her pre-paid money for saddles or send the saddles on order. Now more than ever Cathy needed Cindy to produce the disparately needed saddles that she needed for the horses.  In order to do this Eldorado Saddle and Tack needed to expand, and Hill View Farms® LLC  was rapidly becoming  known as a family who worked together, putting the horse first.

2005 & 2006 Eldorado Saddle and Tack moved from Missouri to Northwestern Illinois, expanded into a new building and produced all of Hill View Farms ® LLC  private label work using the designs inspired by trial and error by Cathy's who drew upon her extensive riding and knowledge within the equestrian field. So proud was Eldorado of this new venture they sold themselves as a sister company to Hill View Farms® LLC .  As with the prior companies, Cathy helped launch Cindy and Harold business.  Cathy shared her dealer net-work, contacts and promoted Cindy and Harold's business aggressively though thousands upon thousands of direct mail pieces.  All done for the love of the horse and not receiving one cent of compensation. She got Cindy to put up her own web site and expand it calling the new saddle line Amera-Flex.  Cindy acquired the domain names under the .com and .net and others that were affordable.  Together they worked on Eldorado's web site and even to this day you can see Cathy hand in both the photo's that were taken as well as Cathy writing.

2007 Times change.  Cindy and her husband Harold no longer wanted to be contract builders, but wanted to do what they wanted, make products how they wanted and use the materials they wanted.  Basically that was it in a nut shell.  It was then that Cathy and Don realized; just how many more companies do they need to get started just to be used until those companies got what they wanted? Even now without Cathy's permission the photo's and the articles / descriptions she took and wrote are being copied and used by others claiming it as their own. How can any company or person out-right plagiarize with out permission or even give credit to the original author is beyond her comprehension.  Yes, mimicry is the finest form of flattery, but what does that tell you about the companies / persons plagiarizing Cathy's work, in fact steeling it for the benefit of profit?  It seemed that with these companies, it is only about the money. How much can be made and how fast.  This seems to be the rule of thumb, not the exception. But...
What about the HORSE?  Who will care about the HORSE?  Does anyone CARE?
     Don told Cathy whom at this time is mad, frustrated and in tears to sell the other products she developed and forget about the saddles.  But for Cathy this was not an acceptable answer.  It was because of Bill, Rhya, Tito and many thousand of countless horses that do not have a voice that Cathy owes this saddle to.  It was the SADDLE that made the company Hill View Farms® LLC a registered trade marked name, a name that is known as "The company who puts the horse first" and does things based on principle and not what the product can do financially for the company, but what the product can do for the horse.
     It was during this time that Don did what no man would in his right mind would do, and he said,  "to do things right you must do it yourself".  And making saddles is exactly what Don had in mind. 
 Don said, "I will give you two years of my life to get this project off the ground". And Don got to work. The very next day Don started straight out to look for a proper place to begin production and picked out a building with the location that he liked and bought it.  A building mind you that was not even on the market!  But it was the right building in the right location and so in less than 30 days the ink was dry on the paper.  That is how things get done right the first time.  Don now, gets up before dawn and works well after dark, rain or shine, cold or hot, helping to make Cathy's vision a reality.   Cathy meanwhile began her search for contract builders, to help with the set up work for the saddles.  After touring 7 different saddle manufactures, picking their brains, she selected those individuals who shared her passion.  But this time it is different. All those little things that Cathy wanted to have fixed have been fixed.  All those little details that other builders’ thought would not matter DO MATTER.  Hill View Farms ® LLC is in the drivers seat and Cathy is on a mission.
And shoot, it is not like they do not have any experience working with this type of thing – building and repairing panel saddles.  For during the past years of 1996 to 2007, which is 12 years of dealing with and trying to get saddle companies to do what needed to be done has been a roller coaster ride at best. The knowledge Don and Cathy gained by dealing with the mix of good, poor and horrible saddle assemblers has given them a lifetime of knowledge. Those years of repairing and fixing what the others could not, has paved the path for this adventure.  The biggest challenge Hill View Farms â has always had in the past, was finding a saddle assembler that would build to their specifications using the materials specified.  Based on what Don and Cathy have accomplished on both a personal and profession level, they are so thrilled that they can have their production house under one roof.  At last, they are in charge of quality control. All those details that were consciously overlooked or deemed unimportant, using inferior materials by shoddy builders are a thing of the past. Hill View Farms â can not be more excited and proud, for it is here at Hill View Farms â that you will find the best quality functional saddle, so great in fact that it carries a 30-day money back, horse and rider satisfaction guarantee.

  Follow Cathy and Don on this marvelous journey. 

With the support of friends, family, manufacturers, trainers, tradesmen and hundreds of other supporters who SHARE the passion and understand the love between horse and rider are making the vision at Hill View Farms® LLC  a reality. Your daily calls and emails fill us with pride and joy and we all thank you from  the bottom of our hearts.

This is a story of Evolution: This is a story of passion, this is for those horses who don't have a voice and need a saddle that will fit and can go from one horse to another with out trouble. 
This is a story of love and dedication from passionate people who love their horses and love what they do.

Problems that are fixed once and for all are:   The encasement on the panels, the tree, the way the foam backing is cut, the wear on the panel and panel assembly, the inserts, the rigging, the foam, the leather, the hardware, the lack of proper ride time to test ride the saddle for fit for both horse and rider and get your money back,  a strong warrantee and lastly the over zealous pricing by greedy companies and individuals have all been addressed.

 
What a great looking crew of builders; all having great fun and boy are we all hard on each other.  Quality and function is everything.

Now we are in June.....  Things have not slowed one bit!

We are still running about 30 saddles behind and the wait can be up to three months.  But we are becoming more efficient. We sort trees and this is the pile that need inspection, filing, sanding and hanger brackets put on.  Each saddle is assigned a work order and on the back side of the laminated sheet is the customers invoice (if the saddle has been claimed or ordered)

After this stage the saddles are set up for base seats.  Here is a pile waiting.  The one saddle has the bar covers on and the others the base seat is started. We try hard to group saddles so that way we can be more time effective. One can see below, the stack of rigging which we  make new every month as we rattle through the orders.

Flaps and parts are cut also in quantity.  Above are 4 sets of flaps that cut and waiting.  This is two days of work for one person in our shop, as the flaps are all cut and finished by hand.

Below are the saddles that are in final assembly.  This is what awaits Cathy when she comes in on Tuesdays and Wednesday to work.  This is also the time that the customer will get a call saying that their saddle is in final assembly .  When a saddle gets to this stage it will be just two days or so before it will ship out. Providing the saddle has passed the two person inspection team that sign off on every detail.

During this final assembly the panels are measured by Cathy and then put on by Don.

If a saddle manages to make it through the complete process without being snatched up it goes into inventory.  To date (7/15/08) having made over 105 saddles, only have a handful have gotten to fill the open spaces in our storage trailer.  

We are continuing to work hard and  find the quality of employees that meet our needs.  We have wasted much time and money on worthless attempts, but the people we have found thus far are much loved and appreciated beyond words. 

Tauer Manfactuing LLC and Hill View Farms LLC, are really, REALLY working hard to meet the needs of our customers.  As a family business we will continue to pursue quality and produce a product that we can be very proud of.  We currently are working on efficiency so that our customers wait times are shorter and we can have and maintain a bountiful inventory (75 to 100 saddles) without having to raise prices to slow demand. So far is it a slow start...but we will get there.

AUGUST and we are there.  Full inventory for speedy deliveries.

As a dear friend once told me; was something that her father told her when she was a child as she was looking over a 40 acre field making shocks with her sister. He said to her, "Don't look at the overwhelming task ahead in despair, but but look back at what you have accomplished".  And this indeed is what we have done, for in a span of less than 8 months, Don and Cathy started a saddle company with 100% full production in all model lines plus tack and new product development.  Now the job ahead is to work on mainstreaming this incredible saddle line into national retail stores.  For more information on these saddle and how to properly fit all saddles, purchase the Hill View Farms Saddling video, which you can get your full money back, if  you end up purchasing a saddle. Now how is that for a promotion!

All About Saddling – A 2 disk set: Get a front row seat to a saddling demonstration.  See first hand how saddles work, how they are they are designed and how technology is changing the way we saddle the horse. l        Learn how to properly tack up both English and Western saddles and how to properly fit, cruppers, breast collars, bridles, bits, pads, girths, cinches and even britching. l        Learn how to identify various back shapes and how to test for proper saddle fit.  l        Learn how to use shims to correct saddle fit and how to palpate your horse's back for condition. l        Lastly learn how to identify problems associated with your tack and how to care for it. Nowhere else will you find a more complete DVD set chucked full of so much information that took over a decade to assemble. Making horses, mules and even donkeys comfortable along with their owners was the driving force behind this production, which is guaranteed to change the life of those you love. Running time 128 minutes. ISBN 0-9776591-0-0. Free, if you end up purchasing a saddle. Item # BK-DVD - Price $ 19.95