Introduction

[HorsehairBraider]

Honest, I work leather too! But what I mainly do, day in and day out, is braid horsehair. So I hope it's OK to join in and post...

I live in New Mexico and started making braided tack as a teenager and that was a pretty long time ago. Then I moved on to repairing and fixing up saddles and so on, and finally started braiding horsehair. Now I have a business where I braid horsehair and design and make horse jewelry, and I also make miniature tack for collectors.

I've been lurking for a few days and thought I would join in. It seems like a friendly bunch of people with a great deal of knowledge! I look forward to getting to know everyone better and learning from you all.

Here's a miniature bridle and set of romal reins I made from leather... all metal parts were hand fabricated in sterling silver by Yours Truly...

[Ross]

i gotta learn how to do that. :biggrin:

[yaklady]

Beautiful work! Is that a Briar size horse? I used to make bridles for them when my daughter was small and into Briar horses, but I just used leather. Never braided horse hair, don't know how! Horse hair and leather go hand-in-hand. We welcome you and your input! If I can kill yaks on here, you can braid horse hair. Want some yak hair?

Kathy

Edited November 25, 2007 by yaklady

[HorsehairBraider]

Wow - yak hair! How cool is that? :biggrin:

That's a Breyer size model. It's an artist resin so it's not a Breyer but basically the same thing.

Yeah, there aren't many people who braid horsehair. (Most people have better sense!) So alas, there are no horsehair braiding forums to join. That makes me doubly glad to be here.

[Don101]

Hi Horsehairbraider Welcome to the forum, thats some neat braiding, do you only make stuff for model horses? or do you also do full size stuff? Don

[Don101]

ok read the post again and saw the minature part for collectors, Don

[HorsehairBraider]

Hi Don - sorry I was not clear, I spent my life making and repairing tack for actual horses and that was how I got started in making the miniatures for collectors. This is a pic of me from my website and the mare is wearing a headstall I made out of horsehair. It's all braided, not hitched. I've got a real nice headstall here that is leather with black and white horsehair knots that I use on my Paso Fino mare but I don't have a good picture of it right now.

[Beaverslayer]

Welcome to the forum horsehairbraider, you will fit right in. We do have a number of people that braid rawhide and such. Love the work on your website.

Ken

[CharlieR]

Welcome, Horsehairbraider--you'll find this a great forum. Several knowledgable braiders frequent here and are really terrific with sharing of information. Speaking of braiding, I've heard of hitching, but is horsehair braiding the same as leather braiding, only with horse hair?? I guess that sounds kinda like a dumb question, uh?

[HorsehairBraider]

That's right CharlieR - I taught myself to braid leather and rawhide by slowly taking apart old pieces of gear and writing down the overs and unders... and if I was careful I could then re-make the knot or whatever. Then I simply started doing the exact same thing with horsehair. Once I had taught myself in this very hard way, I found out there were books about this - ! Talk about DUH!

So my horsehair braiding is just like what a lot of people do in leather or rawhide.

Now, hitching is an entirely different technique. I don't hitch myself but I do admire the work.

I'm really looking forward to talking to some of the real experienced braiders here. I was sure happy to find this forum, there aren't many people who you can talk to about this stuff and who understand the work that it requires. Also I find the many photos really inspiring. There is some awesome talent here.

[Rayban]

I enjoyed your web-site, you do great work. Welcome to the forum.