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| Traditional scale saddle in my collection, made by Kathy Wells |
Now that things have settled down here, with earthquakes, hurricanes and nasty storms behind us, it's time for some model horse fun - and new tack making projects! I made tack many years ago, and enjoy it very much. When I had my own horse, I liked nothing better than grooming and cleaning tack. Yeah, I was weird! I used to take home my horse's bridle, take it all apart, and spend hours cleaning it in the basement, hanging the cheek pieces, nose band, brow band and reins over the wash line in the basement so that I could soap them up with Murphy's Oil Soap and then treat them with some leather conditioner. I love shopping for tack and there is nothing better than finding a great saddle. My favorite saddle of all time was a 1960s Kieffer All Purpose saddle with a deep seat and knee rolls. It was my horse's saddle, passed along to whoever leased him, and that was a very comfortable saddle.
Carrie Olguin's tack making books are the best for showing you how to make model horse tack. Not only does she give you step by step instructions, there are photos of everything, plus patterns to use. I own the Western saddle book and ordered the English saddle book yesterday. I also bought a bridle-making kit from Melody Snow. The kits looks great but I wish I'd bought a Traditional scale kit; I bought a Classic scale kit, and my hands can't handle the tiny details of the Classic scale buckles like they used to.
I've begin writing a new series of articles on tack making for About.com. I hope you enjoy them. It's been a long time since I made tack, and it has been fun pulling out scraps of leather lacing and my pliers and such and working again with leather. I'll share photos of my creations as I work on them. My next project is to make saddle trees out of Sculpey clay and photograph them for an article for About.com. Stay tuned!
New article:
Carrie Olguin's tack making books - recommended:
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