Cora

I usually just tape my fingers but I am going to give that vet wrap thing a try. Cora

I am a firm believer in Less is More, the less you have between you and your horse the more you will learn from him. That's just my $0.02 Cora

Pella My shop used to be an old farm house that we decided to dress up with verticle jackpine siding (slabs) just to give it a bit of character. We have a few older draft horse guys that come for coffee in the summer and sit in the screen porch to talk about the good ol days. I only speak a little french but I can understand a fair bit if it is spoken slowly, I am of irish heritage. I know about cold I woke up this morning and it was -34C before the wind chill. We raise and train arabian horses and not one would come out of the barn. We ride english, western and mostly bareback and do a fair bit of driving, we have a weakness for antique horsedrawn vehicles. Most of my leather work is harness making and repairs. Cora

I live in a small town called LaBroquerie, which is located 45 mins. southeast of Winnipeg Manitoba. Just to the west of us is a small city called Steinbach which is primarily mennonite, and LaBroquerie is mostly french. We have a draft horse association, a lot of people are into ranch rodeo and with living 15 mins. from a provincial park we also have a fair bit of trail and endurance riders. We also have a lot of motorcycle and winter sports enthusiasts. Cora

I also have the books and feel that they are worth every penny, but they do reference from each other so have the whole set would be ideal. Cora

I would also like to add my thanks to everyone involved in getting the forum back up. I was completely lost without it. Cora

You can definately put me down for both! Cora

You certainly could sell some of those splitters, I know I would be interested in one. Cora

Hope you find everyone as interesting and informative as I do. Can't wait to see more of your work. Cora

I've been told that lace made fom goat skin is stronger and easier to work with than kangaroo. What I am wondering, is there anything to this? I checked out the prices of goat hide and I have to admit that I prefer the the price of the goat, but I wouldn't want to sacrifice quality for cost ( of the leather that is. I still have a lot to learn about this whole braiding thing ) Any input would be greatly appreciated. Cora

Or you can still se the whip marks from where the jockey was hitting it! Cora

You can count me in as well. Cora

I also hope that the animals had a good quality of life before they hit the butchers knife. It makes for far less blemishing on the hide. Not to mention what is nicer than a tender steak. I also have talked to people about where their food comes from and I am shocked when I get some of the responses from them like it comes from the grocery store and this is coming from adults not children. Cora

Johanna's story got me thinking. What got any of us started with leather? For me it was when I was about 8. The neighbor had a pony that he said I could ride but he didn't have a bridle for it, only a bit. So I tied the bit to a piece of baling twine and off I went. The other kids in the area started to make fun of my baler twine bridle so I asked my father if he could buy me one, of course the answer was no he wasn't going to pay for my horsey nonsense. A few days later he came home from work, he worked at a tannery, and handed me some scrap leather and told me if I wanted a bridle I could make it myself. So I looked at a friends bridle and put together a very crude but functional one, thats when I got bit buy the leather bug. Cora