Beyond the bucking chutes, Meadow Lake’s Senger builds leatherwork business

“So this way I can kind of just make my own hours and do it whenever I want.”

Custom leather chaps made by Meadow Lake bull rider Marshall Senger, whose customers include riders in Canada, the United States and Australia. (Image Credit: sengerleather/Instagram)

He estimated he had been doing leatherwork for about eight years, gradually improving until he could make a good living at it.

Along the way, he figures he has made roughly 60 to 70 pairs of chaps, including all his own. His customers include friends in Canada and riders in the United States, and he has shipped a couple of pairs to Australia.

Before a piece can leave the workshop, though, it starts on paper. Senger said learning to draw the designs took a long time.

“I just kind of sit down with a blank piece of paper and get to work.”

His drawing abilities, he joked, do not necessarily extend beyond leatherwork.

“I can’t draw you a dog or anything,” he said. “It would look like a horse probably.”

(Image Credit: sengerleather/Instagram)

The skill comes from practice, and the finished product takes time. A simple pair of chaps takes about three days to build, while a more complicated pair can take five or six.

Senger gets his leather from California and buys tools in Saskatoon and Edmonton.

Some pieces carry a significance that goes beyond their design.

Before last year’s finals, he made a black-and-red pair in memory of Adyson King, a girl from Flying Dust First Nation who went missing in April 2025. Her body was later found near a river on the First Nation.

“My family is good family friends with her family.”

Marshall Senger made these black-and-red chaps in memory of Adyson King of Flying Dust First Nation.

Marshall Senger made these black-and-red chaps in memory of Adyson King of Flying Dust First Nation, incorporating her name and things she liked into the design. (Image Credit: sengerleather/Instagram)

Senger said he made the chaps to recognize missing and murdered Indigenous women, incorporating King’s name and things she liked.

“I wore them for something bigger than bull riding… It’s very unfortunate what happened.”

The craft has developed alongside a riding career that brought him consecutive Bull Riders Canada wins in Strathmore, Alta., and Eriksdale, Man., in just over two weeks. Earlier this season, he earned his first PBR Canada event title in Moose Jaw.

His ambitions also extend to leatherwork. He hopes to make chaps for PBR teams in the United States, saying, “It’d be a pretty cool opportunity, so I want to get there.”

For now, he enjoys both the process of making a piece and seeing the finished product.

“I love doing it, so it doesn’t even feel really like I’m working that much.”

More of Senger’s leatherwork can be found on Instagram at @sengerleather.

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Kenneth.Cheung@pattisonmedia.com

by Kenneth Cheung

Beyond the bucking chutes, Meadow Lake’s Senger builds leatherwork business

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