Dang - Just typed up a whole entire update and the thing deleted somehow. This post is going to contain a lot less detail!

Anyhow - Life has been busy so haven't put in much time in on this thing, but here is progress from Saturday and last night.

Rigging plates installed saturday. I like to glue mine in as well as fasten mechanically.

Last night I blocked on my skirts and cut them to the bottom profile I wanted: Also, this time i'm not lacing my skirts all the way to the back tip. I;ve noticed a lot of guys end up cutting their lacing as they are wearing the loin hair off a horse. I figure this time i'll just lace to within about 2" - 2.5" of the skirt tips and see how I like that...the lacing will be hidden by the rear jockeys - So instead of using a shield to connect the jockeys i think i might lace the ones on this rig together.

So far so good - Managed to not wreck these skirts - As some of you may recall I wrecked my first pair on saddle #1. Expensive mistake!

Next step is cantle filler to help stiffen cheyenne roll and then swell cover - Last time my swell cover wasn't that great - Front lip was too thick and was also set back about 5/16" too far back...we'll see how it goes this time! Also, last time i used a full 14oz piece for my cheyenne roll stiffener - Made for tough sewing when I put my cantle binding on...this time i'm gonna experiment and try a nice piece of 9oz. Help keep that cheyenne roll from getting so thick.

R

March 03, 2015

So over the weekend I cut, fitted and stretched the swell cover in. I'm not 100% sure why but i seemed to really have to fight this one. It didn't want to stretch in tight on the front lip. Anyhow, i got it in more or less to my satisfaction - However it seemed like I had to fight it way too much - If anyone has tips / advice on how to make this go a little smoother / easier I'd sure be up to hear them .

Here are a couple of pictures - The saddle is just sitting on the skirts - They haven't been fastened - For tooling on the skirts I am going to do a serpentine border...

The border around my makers mark is what i'm going to do on the skirts...

If anyone has comments / advice on things i should be doing different i'm very happy to hear from them!

Many Thanks,

Ron L