Denise

Congratulations and enjoy your job, Timbo! Sounds like fun!

We'll ditto that. If you need other contact information, PM me and I can give you phone and mailing address.

Thanks Hilly. I'm still learning the ropes on this web thing. I now have that translation site in my favorites so it will help in future too. Interesting how saddlery becomes upholstering in translation!

Thank you for your answers. Unfortunately, I don't know German so I can't read about Desmond O'Brian. I'll have to contact a friend of mine who can in order to decipher that site. Being unilingual is a handicap in these days of the net!

I've heard of a saddle maker who did a similar patch fix when he messed up the customer's brand on a custom saddle. Biggest problem was the saddle was for his father-in -law...

Thanks! I guess www does stand for World Wide Web. So if Albion just got the contract in March, who has been building them?

A friend asked me if I could find out who makes the official saddles of the Spanish Riding School. Does anyone know? This is where I hope our European connections can help out!

Happy Birthday from Rod and I too. It was good to meet you and your wife at King's.

Congratulations! I didn't know yaks had socks. He's CUTE!!

Alan, Bosalito? That's a new word to me. I assume "small bosal" but is there an official definition? Thanks in advance for the information.

Okiwen made this statement in a thread about sewing machines, but it has had me thinking all day. For any of us who sell items we make, we are the supplier for someone out there. So my questions are: How much do you change what you do at a buyer's request? If you know it will affect function negatively, do you still do it? What about making something that will be difficult to sell to someone else if the buyer decides they don't like what they asked for? What positives and pitfalls have you found in responding to customer's requests?

If you have access to a fresh hide of the thickness you would like to use, making your own might be the best way to go. Here is a thread on how some people make their own rawhide. http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?s...ic=2670&hl= When the old posts come back, there were a couple of other threads on making rawhide, including one about using hot/boiling water. Have fun and let us know how it goes.

Well, we're off to the show. Looking forward to meeting everyone there. Should be a lot of fun. But this means we won't have computer access till we get back in about 10 days or so. Wondering if anyone has helpful hints on recovering from LW addiction. Too late to find out now. Will have to tell you what going cold turkey is like when we get back home. Oh, wait, would that mean I fell off the wagon???

David,Thank you for the information you have given us so far. Since I am a visual learner, I am still very interested to see pictures of your trees so we can see the underside a bit better and where you place them on a horse. That would help immensely in understanding your words. Thank you. Some comments on information presented in previous posts: Here is a link to a very interesting site David pointed us to a while back. http://nicholnl.wcp.muohio.edu/DingosBreak...eatHistory.html It shows that throughout history the rider's position has ranged anywhere from over the hips to the base of the neck. Just because something has been done it the past doesn't mean it is wise to repeat it. While vet school has been more years ago than I care to mention and I would never claim to be an expert in anatomy, I would like to point out that the muscles surrounding the lumbar spine include: (Note, all these names have one muscle body one each side of the spine.) Under the transverse processes – the psoas major, the psoas minor and the quadratus lumborum Above the transverse processes – the longissimus dorsi, the middle gluteal, which starts about L2 and goes back, and the multifidus dorsi. Some of these are large diameter muscles and the musculature around the lumbar spine is much more substantial than along the thorax where the ribs help support the trunk. So where there are no ribs, there is more muscle. And, as elsewhere in the spine, the vertebrae are well connected with a complicated system of ligaments.I find it interesting that the earliest pictures of people riding as shown on the above site have them seated right over the hips. Anatomically, this would be the strongest place for the horse to carry weight since the spine is directly connected to the leg – bones connected to bones. The forelimbs of the horse, and every other mammal I can currently think of with the exceptions of humans and primates, are not connected by bone but only by muscle. (It is the collarbone, or clavicle, which is the connecting bone when it is present and active.) So while the lumbar spine is not supported by ribs, it is much closer to a solid base of support – the pelvis – than the forelimbs which essentially hold up the front end of an animal in a sling of muscle. I am not trying to make a statement here as to where the horse is best able to carry and move with the weight of a rider. I wouldn't want to ride on a horse's hips. I am only pointing out anatomical facts. In this thread http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=901 is this quote where David Genadek made reference to his source of information. I am assuming, David, that you are referring here to Dr. Deb Bennet whose works you are citing in your last post. On her website one of the articles in the "information" section is called "Woody". Here is a link to it. http://www.equinestudies.org/knowledge_base/woody.html In it, under the 13th heading labeled "The Righting Reflex", she states "The shoulders are more independent in a horse than in, for example, a cat or a dog, because cats and dogs have collarbones and horses don't. This gives horses an ability to lean - to go crooked - which cats or dogs don't have." While it is true that cats do have tiny collarbones that are occasionally large enough to show up on X-ray, they are imbedded in the brachiocephalicus muscle and do not connect to the skeleton. None of our other domestic mammals have collarbones. As well, while cats will right themselves as they fall if they have enough space, dogs will not. I doubt that this research has been tried with horses. Extrapolating between species as is done in this article is a dangerous business because while some principles hold true, others don't. It is errors like these that make me question the credibility of other conclusions drawn by this author. Denise Nikkel DVM

I also like to do counted cross stitch, but don't seem to have a lot of time so it takes a while to get a piece done. Just the backstitching to do on the one I have been working on for 3-4 years. My favorite is framed and on our wall. It took me 5 years to finish. Too bad it is a donkey and not a horse, but I am not artistic enough to change it.

Rhome, Thanks for showing us your work! Too bad the purse doesn't see more daylight, but I can understand the size thing. If all your "I have to have it with me" stuff won't fit, what do you do?

Very nice work!

Johanna, Fortunately I could vote "never" for the first question. Glad I never was tempted when I see the struggle so many people have to quit. (By the way, it wouldn't take my vote because I couldn't vote on the next two.) But congratulations on your decision and all the best to you in sticking with it. Maybe the best incentive is knowing that you have 2,278 people supporting you - and who will check up on you from time to time. Hang in there. You will be glad you did. Just not today, maybe...

Glad you made it on, Robin. You will enjoy it here and we will enjoy having your expertise as well.

Beautiful work Arvis. Good to know of yet another couple who can work together day after day. It's fun, isn't it!

jbird, Here is one of the threads where the different books and videos are discussed. http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=260

Glad it is staying put, Beav, but what does this say about your head???? I met a lady who had had a major accident and now has a metal plate for a forehead. She talked about her neices and nephews having fun sticking fridge magnets to her face...

That is what we looked like a week ago. Got about 1 1/2 to 2 feet of the stuff. Most is gone now. Some still in the ditches but we had about an inch of rain yesterday so it is officially spring!! Tomorrow it should get up to about 70 F (20 C) and then watch things grow! And it will finally FEEL like spring!! The misquitoes are out already though...

I've been wondering the same thing. But it only disappears sometimes. I am using it right now. Sometimes here. Sometimes not. Computer people???????

JAM, Here is a link to another old thread on this subject. Hopefully it will give you more information to help you out. http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=1909