gesa

Hello Regis, I was tought to take a round awl , I personally prefer a dull tip for this, put a little drop of wood glue and push the thread end into the leather. Sometimes it is nessecary to do it from both sides. If the hole looks a little wider than the others, I take a hammer and tap to close it a bit. Gesa

Thank you for your kind words. I was trained for fine stitching and edging where I work ( passier.com ). There I handstitch bridles all day long.... But personally I prefer western tack and love to carve leather.

Hello all, I finally took some pictures of one of my first projects. When I met Inga, she worked for a western saddlemaker here in Germany and tought my the basics of carving leather. This was about ten years ago. This bridle was my first larger project then. It is an oakleaf pattern and I handstitched every part. Now the bridle is almost 10 years old and I ride my paint horse Luna with it. .......mmmmh, Inga tought my how to carve leather, gave me the pattern for the bridle........and sold me a horse !!!..... but we are still good friends Gesa

Now here is my flower...... I put a little bit Leather Glow on it. Gesa

Now here ist my attempt in carving the lioness and I changed the pattern a little bit. I will add the wiskers later... Gesa

Hi all, I live my whole live in Hannover , Germany exept one year in France at school ( yes I also speak french) and I am saddlemaker at G.Passier&Sohn. Hannover is like "many small villages in one place" an Australian from Sidney said to me, so you just turn around the next corner and there are farms and flat land. Here horse people are mostly english riding dressage and jumping. So I am a little bit exotic with my Paint Horse -> my avatar <- and western saddle. Gesa

I used one of his bottles several times and the water tastes good. The beeswax don't give a bad taste to the water. I am not sure if the water stays the same with synthetic wax. Gesa

Hello Knut, welcome, glad you joined this forum. Gesa :biggrin:

I will tell this one of my best friends. We made this kind of ride together several years ago, ok here are no sharks..... Now she lives in Sidney and was a little envious, because she would love to do this again. I bet she don't know that there is a similar island in Australia. Gesa

Thanks to all for the great birthday wishes! Vielen Dank fuer Eure lieben Geburtstagsgruesse! :hug: Gesa

Hello Pella, thank you for your reply. It helps a lot, it is difficult to get information about these "saddlery secrets" here. The old saddlemakers are gone. I know only saddlemakers who are junger than 60 years old. And especially where I work, there are many young saddlemakers 2/3 under 40 years old. Ands there is this nasty habit in Europe, that there are only few written information about saddlery. Mostly only mesurements, but almost no explanations why they made the saddles or harnesses that way. I am very interested in every kind of saddlery and leather work and I also collect old saddlery books or at least a copy of it. There were many information how to make the serge or linen panels, how to flock them and so on, but not why. This information was probably general knowledge of horsepeople and saddlemakers, that it was not useful to write it down. Gesa

I am not sure, but I think they chose Fjord Ponies for their trail rides, because they are more resistant to salt water. The hooves and legs had no skin irritations. But you can see the saddles as marks on their back, this is not the usual sore spot of a poor fitting saddle, it seems more that the sand under the saddle cause these larger "roan" patches that look like the panels. On the way to Neuwerk the ground was not very muddy, tho hooves don't sink into the sand. It is more like almost dry concrete. You can see your footprints. It is not possible to do this every day, for example if there is onshore wind the water will stay and it is too dangerous to ride through the water.

Hi all, I just have to share a unique experience for horsepeople. As far as I know it is the only place where you can ride to an island. The island Neuwerk belongs to Hamburg but is about 100 km away from Hamburg. At the coast is Sahlenburg a small town. There is the riding stable who makes guided tours to Neuwerk on horseback or with a carriage. They have about 30 trained Fjord ponies. It takes about five hours to get there ( about 10 miles one way)and come back, because this is only possible when the tide goes out. About half of the time we need to gallop. It is hard if you do just slow trail rides. IT WAS GREAT FUN. Here we were about on half way. As you can see on the jacket of my friend we were coverd with mud. More of the island. The small bushes in the water show the path you need to follow or you will drown in one of the tidal creeks. They were so deep that we all had wet legs to the knees. It was a bit scary, but the Ponies were calm and gave us a security. Now my muscles and bones aching badly.....it seems that I am getting old Gesa

Hello all, I was asked if I know WHY old saddles from about 1900 where made with panels with linen ( or sometimes woolen) lining. As I don't know it and in my old books there are no answers to this question I pass it on to you. The Story: my Boss asked me if I know an answer to this question, it was a strange situation for me. He was asked by a saddlery from the Netherlands who are restoring an old saddle from Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands who orderd it in 1901 or 1902. This saddle should be displayed after restoring it with facts why it was build this way, with the linen panels. It is easy to find out how it was used, where to buy it and how to repair linen panels. If someone of you knows why, could you please tell me the source like a book where it is written why they used linen instead of leather as on new saddles. Thank you Gesa

Thanks everyone for the response's. It will take some time till I start the guitar. I should take more pictures of the things I have done the last couple of years. Gesa

It seems that my colleges found out that I can carve almost every kind of picture in leather. I made these pictures so far and have an order for a electric guitar, but more about that later.... It started with this one. I lost the picture of the finished piece, but I saved this "work in progress" and the original. It is lightly embossed and later colored. Then I made these two this year. Gesa

Hi Art, I personally think similar........thats why I own an American Paint Horse and prefer riding with western tack. So I am sort of exotic where I work, but I am not the only one !! Gesa

I found this picture I made for a friend several years ago, who wanted to make a halter for his arab.That is why the description is a bit like a letter. I hope it is useful for you too. It is a bit blurry, but if you have a programm to zoom in it is readable.......I hope Gesa

Hi, I voted for " sometimes, it depends" because I do it rarely. I pound the stitches with my saddler hammer if there is wear on the stitches. I do mostly english tack and when I sew a pair of english stirrup leathers I pound the stitches flat . It is life threatening when these stitches come loose. I can not remember other items at the moment. Gesa

Hello, here I am, Johanna! I is no problem for me to translate for you, just send me a PM. I just now very few western saddlemakers in Germany. I only met Ken Mathews ( from England ) his website is: www.custom-saddle-shop.de I recently saw one of his saddles for a draft horse with an 18" seat. I made 2 bridles for this horse. When I find pictures I will post them. Greetings from Hannover Gesa

Westernriding becomes more and more popular in Germany and Europe. It is still a bit exotic but it changes. Since I bought a paint horse 7 years ago I am interested in western saddlery. The flowers on the bridle are a belt design from the lucky 8 pattern book. Gesa

I like working there. When I started there 10 years ago there where many older employes, who are retired now. Now there are about 2/3 under 40 years old, so we we have many interests in common. Many doing horseback riding or own a horse and more and more female employes - we talk a lot We are also a mixture of Europeans: turkish, polish, british, russian , kroatian and probably I left out one or two nationalities. I work at the assessories department, where I do everything from cutting out the parts to sewing bridles, girth and halters. We are three employes who are cutting the parts and giving them to the emlpoyes to finish them. We have orders where we make items completly, but with larger quantities it is easier to give one person 6 cavestons, another 6 reins and the last one 6 headstalls. From time to time there are some custom orders or even rarer bridle repairs. At the saddle department it is different, they all have only specific tasks. The three men who are doing the saddle repairs, have a lot of different works to do. Gesa

Thank you all for your kind words! I told him that it would be better to seal it a bit, but he is also saddlemaker and decided to let it like that......ok hes only 21 years old and thinks it will not happen that water will hit it......we will see. Gesa

The glass rhinestones are set in a chain, I have never seen sockets who are large enough to set them through thick leather. I buy it from an ebay shop, but on ebay he has only two colors or so. when you ask himhe has much more colors for sale, also black. I use them also to make browbands for horses. His shop is called World-of-Rhinestones Now to make this kind of collar: The first picture shows a strap with decorative stitches with a sewing machine. I do this, because it is easier to handsew the padding under the strap. The second strap shows the channel I made with a u-gauge. This is important in my opinion, because the rhinestone-chain will "sink" a bit into the leather. I like that more than it sits on top. I sew the chain into tha channel every 4 to 5 stones. This is the backside of the stiched in chain. Between two stones I make two holes and stitch it tight with two or three loops ( turns?? I don't know how to describe it). then i go,on the backside, to the next stitches until the end of the channel. The last and first stitch I seal with a drop of super-glue, still on the backside. Now I glue the padding with contact cement from the buckle to the end of the chain under the strap. Take my needles and a round sewing awl and sew both parts with fine thread together through the ready made stitches. That is my favourite way to put rhinestones to thick leather. Gesa

Sometimes I go out with friends, who are sort of "weekend-gothics", so I made a collar and armbands for one of my best friends. Dressed all black it look awsome. They are with grey-blue rhinestones, padded, made of black bridle leather and closed with buckles. Just like a dog collar. Gesa