Originally Posted by Salubrious

Don't throw it away! About 10 years ago I took the old leather off of a saddle that had the leather failing like that, flattened it out and used it as a template for a new bit of leather. The leather I bought was a bit too thin, and I didn't take into account that the old leather was stretched, which meant that the adjuster bolt was close to its limit when all was said and done. So in the future I would use a heavier leather (only slightly though) and make it overall just slightly shorter but otherwise with the holes in the same place. FWIW the saddle I repaired in this manner is still usable. To form the leather I used hot water and a heated iron. If I had a form (like RHM uses) I could have done better.