1st Day of the New Year

I guess December was pretty uneventful for tack making.  I did work on making a racing saddle so I could take progress photos for the magazine article.  The saddle looked pretty good actually, but it wasn't something I was planning to finish so I decided just to chuck it.  Oh well!  I'm tired of making racing tack right now anyway.
I started up working on my Lg. Traditional draft harness some more, and I think it'll be phenomenal when I'm done!  I haven't seen any Lg. Traditional harnesses on Equus Maximus before since you have to create some of the major the hardware by hand, so this might be something special.  I had initially started at the front with the bridle and such, but kind of hit a wall when I needed a large enough bit and the hames.  So, I'm picking up work from the back.  Here's photos of what I'm doing so far:

(Above) This is my first uptug out of 6 that need to be made.  It's called a boxed loop uptug.  I have patent leather backing & detailing on the uptug.  For being so small, it took a couple hours to make since I had to battle the paint a bit.  Now I know how long I have to wait for it to dry before I touch it!

 (Above) The start of the swinging toggle.  This will be a mini-sized drafter that sits upon the top of the peaked collar and/or on the top of the back pad.  This one is super small, but I think I actually need to go smaller.  The lump of clay at the base is only to hold him up.  I have to wait for his body sections to dry before adding legs & such.  I'm thinking this will wind up being a redo.  I have another idea brewing should the clay not work out.  I see the Susan Bensema-Young harness sets photographed on her site (www.timarustarii.com), but I can't quite tell what she does for the toggle.  Her tack is stellar, but I'm trying to create something even more detailed!  I don't want to buy another artist's how-to book, so I'm content to figure this out myself.

(Above) Here we have the crupper which I probably made 3+ years ago...fully stuffed and has a wire core.  It's ok, but I'll probably redo it.  I don't have working buckles there at the top which I think I would prefer to have.  These can be tricky to make properly, so I'll have to see how it looks once more things come together.

(Above) This is the collar I started a couple years ago.  It just got its black color today and already looks much better!  It's stuffed, has a wire core, and is hand-stitched at the seams.  I'm debating on whether or not to put a flannel panel (haha!) on the bottom where it would sit on his neck.  Most collars have some kind of fabric underside I believe.  I've never actually touched a real draft harness in person, so this is all based on photos that I find on the web.

(Above) This is the collar latch that closes the top of the collar once you have it around the horse's neck.  I made every bit of this, and it works too!  Unfortunately it's a detail that won't be seen since it'll sit under the peaked collar.  Why am I doing it then?  I don't know, I guess for the sake of realism.  The leather straps on both sides are just junk leather to hold everything together until I can incorporate it officially.

(Above) Lastly, we have the side check chain that goes through the tear drop and attaches to a swivel ring that really swivels around.  I think that's pretty cool!  I'm not wild about the look of the tear drop though.  I think that'll be a redo. 

So, now you can see why I'm taking so long on this set.  I want to have as much detail as I can fit, and since it's in a larger scale, I can throw in working parts.  The trick is getting them to actually work :)  Anyway, I think I'm going to take another break and go watch a movie.  I'm happy to report that it's Jan 1st, and we still don't have snow on the ground!  I wish the whole winter would be snow free!   

 

Racing Set -- DONE!

I'm finally done!  Well, I was done yesterday, but then I was tacking up Valor to take some pics and the overgirth buckle broke :-/  Darn leather.  I really put some time into making the overgirth neat, so I'm going to have to improvise unfortunately instead of remake.  Normally super glue is really strong, but this set is going to have the overgirth buckled forever, so there will always be the stress of the elastic girth pulling on the strap.  I'm wondering if I should sew the joint....yep, that's what I should do.

Ok, so I took care of that now so here's the finished set photos.

More Racing Set Updates -- nearing completion

I am doing work on the girths now.  The undergirth will be a glue-only type of deal, and the overgirth will have a working buckle but should be glued in place to reduce stress on the leather parts.  Undergirth is done.  The overgirth just needs a strap & the strap keepers.   

The hood is done.  It has those long straps on both sides so that Lisa can glue them down to her horse.  Glue and trim off the remaining pieces.

I have the saddle mostly done, though I am debating on whether to create a bottom to it or not.  There is no need really since it'll be permanently attached to the horse.  I'll figure something out as I have a little tweaking on the front end I want to do.

The bridle also mostly done.  I have a buckle keeper to add, and just some sheaths over where the rubber meets the leather on the farside rein.  Otherwise, that should do it.

Lastly, I have the black #2 saddle cloth to start.  Since I'll be making it myself instead of outsourcing like I usually do on the saddle cloths (and I have no idea how to use a sewing machine), I think I'll be using the iron-on hemming adhesive.  I used that once before and had good results.  As for the #2 in white, I'll do an iron-on transfer if Kinko's can print something in white ink for me.  I liked how it turned out on my previous saddle cloth that I made.  I think Secretariat also raced with a chamois and possibly a foam pad under his saddle.  I think I'll include that too, since you'll be able to see part of it when the cloth is flipped back.

And that just about does it for today.  It's going a little slower than usual, but I'm putting more time into making this a great set.  Too bad it won't be for the show ring! 

Racing Set Updates

I'm finally coming down the home stretch for my racing set.  I have the bridle & hood done, I'm just currently waiting on my leather clearcoat to dry on the saddle before assembling the whole thing (killing some time online while I wait), then I just have the girths & blanket to make.  Then we should be all good.  I'll edit this post later in the evening when I get the saddle assembled.

Edit (sort of):

 The saddle isn't fully assembled, but I hand-stitched the Ewalt brand logo on both flaps.  The overhang there will be factored in there when the flaps are actually glued down, the stirrups glued in, and the stuffed panel added.  That should about take care of it!  It's a brown saddle with glossed finish. 

Valor's Racing Set

My Valor just came over the weekend, so I'm taking a pic of the bridle so far.  I'm finally through with my dog shows, dog training (for a week anyway), and I'm taking a vacation from work!  YAY! :)  It should be a good week.  Anyway, I'll be doing more work on the set this week but I wanted to post a good pic of what I have so far.  I remembered to bring my digital camera + Dolica photo studio home from work, so you can see more details.

EDIT:  I started on the race hood and I'm posting progress below.  I need to add blue eyecups, some cheek straps, little leather bits like the real hood from the '70s, and then trim out the rest of the border in while then we should be good. 

Reference for me so I don't have to keep finding the files buried in my computer:

Racing Pix & Dewey

Ok, I think Valor will be here tomorrow but I feel like posting a little something now.  I realized that blogs are pretty boring without some pictures to look at!

We'll start with a photo of Secretariat, and the main inspiration of what I'm doing.  This is essentially what I'll be making.  It's hard to find a photo of his saddle without a Ron Turcotte sitting in it, so I think that gives me a little creative license to make something neat!

Here's just a quick shot of my bridle so far.  The white cheek strap will be hiding under the racing hood, so there's no need for buckles.  If it were for someone in the hobby, I'd be doing it a little different but it's just going to be glued to the horse in this case.  The blue straps are working buckles, and I'm doing loop end reins with orange rubber grips.  I've taken the dimensions from a particular brand of rein that's 56" long in real life, or 12" bit to grip x 24" grips x 20" grip to end.  I know it's a little different than his photo dimensions, but the rubber is pretty resistant to glue!  It's better if just the leather can be glued down instead.  He'll have a white browband, brown-ish saddle with some type of embellishment, blue checker hood, and everything else you can see in the photo (tack-wise).  This is a very handsome set in real life, so I sure hope my scale version turns out just as nice!

And of course there's Dewey who thinks he's the "other" kind of show dog and not just an obedience dog  :)

Secretariat Racing Set 1st Updates

Nothing major to report today.  As I mentioned previously, I'm trying out some new techniques for this set.  For the rubber part of the reins, I actually cast some rubber pieces from a mold I made to look like the real thing with grips and all.  It's been quite a challenge so far (lots of castings before I found something I thought looked good enough), and I'm sure there's a better way to do it, but what I made isn't bad.  I'll keep experimenting and perfecting on future sets but its time to move forward. 

The bridle has been a little slow going since I have to paint everything blue, but its looking sharp so far!  I also have my checker pattern created for the blinker hood in a scale that I think looks good, so I'll be getting to that shortly.  I just ordered the last solid cast Valor from Rio Rondo, so once he arrives I'll take some pics on him.  Yay!  He's a cool model.   Anyway, that's about it for now. 

Oh yea, my dog and I did get our title this past weekend.  We got a 98 out of 100, which was a tie score for 1st place but the person who got first was 2 seconds faster...so I got 2nd. Still a good showing and I'm proud :). Next up is Advanced Rally (RA title) and Novice Obedience (CD title).  We shall see!