Another day, another foal

Don't let the ho-hum attitude of this entry's title fool you... I am delighted to post another installment in the 2009 Parade of Foals!

This is Daisy. She was born yesterday and she is just about the sweetest thing ever! She is very quiet and calm and is happy to stand still and let you love on her. Not surprisingly, I spent a lot of time doing just that this morning.

I also checked in with Austin...

and Iris.

Iris is so sassy. She's still my favorite of the group.

Here she is stretching her legs with mama, Pixie.

Just one mare left to foal...Poor Lexie--she looks like she's ready to pop. Hope that baby comes soon!

The English saddle

According to the sign at the Carriage Museum in Colorado Springs...

this is an English saddle! It's more English than Western, I suppose, but I'm not sure I'd use either of those words to describe it. Not that it matters, really. It's lovely either way. Here is a close-up of the seat (and also the nonexistent pommel!).

Rear view.

Detail of the stirrups and stirrup leather buckles.
And there were some "real" English saddles upstairs. This beautiful old Hermes was my favorite of that group.Stay tuned for still more pictures from the Carriage Museum! I still have the Western, Parade and Tibetan saddle photos left to post.

Dog park intervention

Here's a fact that I've been trying not to think about--this is my kids' last full week of school. Summers tend to be fairly unproductive here at Braymere Custom Saddlery. I always have the best intentions, but it's hard to concentrate on itty bitty straps and buckles when the kids are around.

Knowing this, I have spent the past four days working like a fiend. Except for taking my kids to and from school, I haven't left the house. All I've done is sit at my worktable and make tack. Don't get me wrong--I like making tack--but this has been excessive. I woke up this morning feeling tired and cross eyed and in need of an intervention. Happily for me, that's exactly what I got!

My friends Carol and Cara came by this morning and kidnapped my girls and me. Destination--the dog park!It's impossible to be tired and grumpy at the dog park. I don't think I will ever tire of watching my dogs run and jump and wallow in the water. It's the perfect place to relax and unwind!

Abbie was showing her age this morning. She didn't get in the water at all, but she still had a good time.

Of course, Cara and I always have to go visit the horses.

I really like the cat tracks on this tobiano pinto. He also has a blue eye.

We spotted this miniature horse baby all the way across the field and walked along the fence line for a better look.Unfortunately, we didn't get very far before someone came and shooed us away. He said our dogs were not allowed near the horses, which seemed sort of weird seeing how the stable borders an off leash dog park. Still, there was no point in arguing that fact, so I snapped a couple hasty pictures and we headed out. Now that I'm looking at the pictures, I'm wondering if the camera was more of an issue than the dogs. If my pony's feet looked this bad, I wouldn't want anyone taking pictures either.

Oy! That's just terrible! She was obviously footsore, of course. Now I'm going to be worrying about her every time I drive by. I really hope she's a new rescue or something. There's just no excuse to let any horse's feet get in that condition. The stable she lives at is not a top of the line facility, but I am still shocked to see something like this. The other horses seem basically to be in generally good condition. Ugh, that poor little pony! I can't stop thinking about her...Here's a couple quick shots of what I've been working on. I finished the saddle yesterday and the girth and breastplate today. If you look closely, you can see that the shoulder straps on the breastplate are raised and stitch marked.

Tomorrow I will make the bridle and pad, and then I'll have one less thing to do once summer vacation starts on Tuesday!

Sidesaddles at the Carriage Museum

I made my first ever sidesaddle in April. Usually a new tack item means a week or more spent in the research and pattern development stage. This time however, I cheated. Instead of doing all that work myself, I used the patterns and instructions from Carrie Olguin's Modern Sidesaddles English and Western book. The saddle turned out fine, but I was slightly dissatisfied with the process. I never really felt as though I knew enough about sidesaddles to be making one. Almost as soon as it was done, I sat down and spent a day googling sidesaddle pictures. I was determined to be better prepared before I started sidesaddle #2.

So, I was absolutely delighted to see a number of sidesaddles up close and in person at the Carriage Museum in Colorado Springs last weekend. Pictures are wonderful, but there is nothing better than looking at the actual item. This first sidesaddle was my favorite and it was also the best documented one of the collection. This was Julie Penrose's personal saddle. It was made by Crate Saddlery in London, England around 1885.
I really like the way this one has a skirt--that's the piece that covers the top of the stirrup leather where it attaches to the saddle--similar to that of a regular English saddle. Most of the sidesaddles I've seen just have a little flap. This looks far more elegant to me.

Close up of the horns.

The view from the rear. Like many sidesaddles, this one has fabric covered panels.Unfortunately, the rest of the sidesaddles in the collection did not have any real documentation. This one was most similar to the Crate sidesaddle.

The offside of the above saddle. The slit at the top center of the flap interests me. Does anyone know what it's for?

Front view showing the panels.

Sadly, this Western style sidesaddle was not in very good condition.

I wonder if you could use those little Turkish rugs that are so popular with the Arab costume makers to simulate the tapestry seat?

Again, pictures of the saddle's offside lead to questions. I wonder what exactly is the purpose of that hook?

I don't make very much tack to keep, but sooner or later I'm going to have to make myself a sidesaddle. I've really come to appreciate them over the past couple of months!

One down

It's NAN month! The model horse hobby's biggest show will be held June 26 through 28 in Portland, Oregon. I still have a few NAN orders left to fill, but I am working hard and making steady progress. I just finished up this huntseat set for Erin Corbett today. Erin lives in Portland and she is planning to single handedly fill the English and Western Performance divisions at this year's NAN. I think she's nuts, but I am happy to enable her in her quest for "cookies". I am really pleased with the way this set turned out. I am going to have lunch and admire it a little bit longer, and then I will be right back at it starting Erin's second saddle set.

Polo saddles

On to the good stuff--the saddles! As soon as I saw these two 1920's era polo saddles, I knew the Carriage Museum was going to provide me with a wealth of reference pictures.The official's saddle is a basic English type saddle with knee blocks on the flaps and bags to hold extra polo balls. This saddle's panels are made of fabric, not leather and it is fitted with a Balding girth.
Close up of the ball bags.

The scorekeeper's saddle is of an English/military type but it had a horn. This particular saddle also has wooden, Western style stirrups. I wouldn't bet on those being part of the original rigging. Although the museum curator was very well versed in the intricacies of the carriages and cars, I sensed he was less knowledgeable about the tack. It wouldn't surprise me at all to learn that these stirrups were added after the fact.

Like many saddles in the collection, this one was pretty narrow when viewed from the front. They must have had some pretty slab-sided critters back then!

Here's the sign that was displayed with the polo saddles.

I know there are a few other model tack makers who read this blog, and if you're one of them, you are more than welcome to copy these pictures or any others for your reference files. All I ask is that if you do make a saddle based on something I posted here, please let me know about it! I'd love to see pictures, too.

The Carriage Museum

My husband and I zipped down to Colorado Springs for a one night mini vacation last weekend. We arrived at our hotel a couple hours early and decided to enjoy the nice weather by going for a walk. The walk didn't last long, though. This sign caught my eye and I couldn't resist going inside to look at the carriages.

The museum curator met us at the door and welcomed us to the museum. I mentioned that I liked horses and he said there were a "couple" saddles in the collection. I did not find them right away though because I was distracted by things like this:

This beautiful Brougham was used in the 1841 inauguration parade by President William H. Harrison. Here is all the pertinent information for you carriage aficionados.There were all different kinds of horse drawn vehicles. Here is a sulky: And this is a cutter sleigh:
Harness bells for the sleigh.

I love this little pony cart. The back seats are mounted on a swivel so that they can either face the middle or the back of the cart.

How about a class for performance goats?

Wouldn't the Breyer companion animal goat look great hitched to a miniature version of this?

In addition to the carriages there were also some very old cars including some vintage hillclimber race cars. My husband did not have much interest in the carriages, but I think he would have been happy to stay and look at those cars all day.Collared harnesses were everywhere. Unfortunately, most of them were hanging up like this, behind the carriages and too far away for close inspection.And it turns out there were far more than a couple saddles. Here is just a little teaser picture of the "Western Saddle" wall. Never fear, I will post a lot more saddle pictures in future postings!

If you live near Colorado Springs, I can not recommend this museum enough. It's located right across the street from the Broadmoor Hotel and admission is free. The curator is very friendly and is happy to tell you everything he knows about the objects in the collection. Very few things are behind glass, and I was able to look at the saddles from nearly every angle. Truly, this museum is a wonderful resource for anyone interested in saddles for the late 1800's and early 1900's!