Chinese saddle-maker aims to take his brand abroad

A saddle made by Sun Bangli features the signature of Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov. It is a gift presented to the president during President Xi Jinping's visit to the country in 2014. Provided To China Daily

In 1985, he went to Yangma Island in Shandong province to help develop a racecourse, introduce imported saddles and video equipment. The province is where China's first emperor, Qin Shihuang, is said to have raised horses.

But Sun, who was better at solving technical problems than management, returned to Inner Mongolia after the racecourse failed.

In 1993, when the Guangzhou Jockey Club was founded to raise horses, the organizers needed about 40 sets of saddles, horsewhips and related items, which were not available in the country.

That was when Zhang Hanwen, an organizer at the club and Sun's former coach at the China Military Sports Institute, asked Sun if he could make the saddle sets for them.

Sun had cherished his saddle-making dream for years, so he accepted the offer. But the challenge was to make more than 40 saddles in 40 days, starting from scratch.

As the deadline approached, his blood pressure started to drop, making him sick while he was sewing the saddles, he says.

Though he did not make money on first try - he lost 6,000 yuan ($870) due to a lack of business sense - the completion of the mission led him to the next phase of his life.

Sun started to take orders for saddles in Hohhot, a business that has expanded with time.

Now, he has seven employees working in a 500-square-meter factory where various kinds of equipment and tools are arranged.

He wants to increase the production rate this year, he says.

"With proper investment and a big enough place, we will buy more equipment. Judging from the current production capacity, we can produce about 10,000 saddles a year, and we will set a relatively low price to make quality saddles affordable to Chinese," he says.

Jia Juncheng is the coach of Yunlong International Equestrian Club in Shanxi province.

The 39-year-old has been engaged in the sport for 22 years.

In 2016, he started using a saddle made by Sun, which helped him win the third place in the National Equestrian Eventing Championship held in Youyu county in Shanxi province that year.

"One of the best things about Sun's products is that the saddle bag in the back won't fly up like other brands when a horse jumps ... So it's easier for me to keep my balance," says Jia.

Compared with brands around the world, Sun's brand, Obang, offers quality and affordability, Jia says.

Sun charges 35,000 yuan for his best leather saddles, but many good saddle brands are more expensive.

He is confident in his craft, and says he is going to reduce the handmade component to the minimum in the future. Eighty percent of the production process will be done by machines.

"If machines can do better and faster work, why stick to human labor?" he says. "My goal is to make a Chinese saddle brand that can be compared with any brand in the world."