Ski-joring

Most of my customers order things you'd find in the tack room of Anystable, USA--saddles, bridles, halters, girths, martingales, breastplates, horse boots and the like. I've used these items on real horses and have made them all in at least two model scales. When I get an order like this, I don't have to do much to prepare myself for the building process. I just assemble my supplies, sit down and go.

Occasionally, though, I get an order for a piece of tack I know nothing about. This was the case in 2004 when Sandy asked me to make her a Swiss ski-joring harness. Luckily, I had exactly the right reference book sitting on my shelf. You wouldn't know it from the generic looking cover, but A World of Horses is the first book I go to when researching non US based performance events.

It has a short but informative and picture filled chapter on ski-joring.
Using this book and some pictures provided by Sandy, I was able to sketch out a rough plan of what I wanted to make.I scanned my drawing and emailed it to Sandy for input. In the end I made all the tack and harness parts including the piece the handler hangs onto.

Sandy took this set up to NAN 2004. Her Kittydidit resin, Precious Secret, was Reserve Champion in the CM Games class, And her Breyer Affirmed model, Beaumont, was Champion of the OF Games class. Being part of a winning team is always exciting and I was very, very pleased when Sandy won those "cookies". However, this particular order would have been satisfying regardless of its showring success. I enjoy researching events and equipment that I'm not familiar with and sometimes I really do need a break from all those routine saddles and bridles!

So, if you've got an idea for an unconventional set-up and you need some tack to make it work... Well, here's a tack maker who just might be able to help!