This process is not for anyone unsure of their ability to reassemble the saddle.
Removing the skirts can be very difficult and time consuming depending on how the saddle was constructed. The Saddle Skirts are one part of the saddle that are rarely if ever cleaned and conditioned due to half or more of the Saddle Skirt is under the Saddle Tree or other leather parts.
If you have the Front, Seat and Rear Jockey loose from the tree you can now look up under the Jockeys to determine if the skirt is attached with a sewn on piece of leather that forms a small wing. That wing is usually folded over the Saddle Tree and nailed down under the Front and Rear Jockey.
The saddle featured here had six to eight nails on each skirt at the very top inside portion of the skirt. Indicated by blue dots in the picture are where I found the nails. It is a slow time-consuming process to find each nail and remove it. The nails are buried under the fleece, so finding them is next to impossible.
The best method to do this is if everything is loose, slide your screwdriver up between the Saddle Tree and the Saddle Skirt. Locate the first nail on an outer edge of the skirt and pry it up a little with the screw driver. After the nail moves a sixteenth of an inch or so, remove the screwdriver. Now push on the fleece lining and locate the nail. Once you locate it, cut away the fleece covering the nail and use your nippers to grab the nail and pull it out. Repeat this process for each nail.
WARNING: Remember the Saddle Skirt leather is probably the most dry and brittle leather on the saddle. Don't apply so much pressure with the screwdriver that the nail could pull through the leather or the screwdriver could punch through the leather.