Padded perfection

Years ago, a friend who is no longer in the hobby asked to borrow some tack for a live show. I put a few bridles and other odds and ends in a box and mailed them to Colorado. When she returned them, she included photographs from the show. 

"Where did you get the waffle weave dressage pad?" I asked during our next phone call. "It looks really good."

She laughed and said, "I made it. It's a paper towel cut down to size and trimmed with braided embroidery floss."

I laughed, too. "Wow! I would have never guessed. It really does look good!"

And it did, in a 1994 kind of way.

This is what "really good" looks like in 2018.

There simply aren't enough words to describe how much I love my newest saddle pad from my friend, Maire Lanzafane.

Her workmanship is flawless...

and the fit... 

Well, it just doesn't get any better than this! 

I know there are a lot of people who yearn for the simplicity of the hobby's earlier years, but I am not one of them. How could anyone ever want to go back to paper towels when you could have a pad by Maire instead?

Thank you, Maire and everyone else who continues to push the boundaries of what is possible in the realm of tiny tack making. This is why I'm still here and still obsessed some twenty five years later.