Replacing a girth strap on an Equus pad Icelandic horse saddle

[Mulesaw]

I have been getting more jobs from the local Icelandic horse community over the past year. The tack isn't radical different from what I normally repair, but the saddles look a bit different. This time at home I was asked to replace a girth strap that had broken.

It is a first time for me to see a girth strap that is sewed directly to the saddle flap. It was just sandwiched between the inner and outer layer and sewn. As it can be seen on the lower picture, the strap was originally sewn across the width, which seems strange to me. However, the split didn't happen directly along the sewing though it looks as it has started in one corner. 

The sewing along the edge of the outer layer does not go through the strap, so it was just sewn in a "square" pattern. 
I abstained from doing the same, so I just sewed it along the edges, and across in the top where it is already skived thin, that little top across stitching doesn't hold anything, but gives a way to make one continuous sewing line instead of two separate lines.

The job itself was a quick one, but the mounting was new to me. I just took those 2 crappy pictures, because I was in a hurry, so sadly no glamour shots of the completed saddle.

 

 

 

 

[chuck123wapati]

That is cool and interesting. Being sandwiched, the stitch line couldn't flex, so it wasn't the weakest point after all.

[Mulesaw]

On 5/25/2026 at 12:34 PM, chuck123wapati said:

That is cool and interesting. Being sandwiched, the stitch line couldn't flex, so it wasn't the weakest point after all.

Yes, I also found that quite interesting. 

It is still an unusual method of attaching the straps, but the other 3 had held up OK, so I guess it is a valid method.
Personally I prefer the regular method where the straps are sewn to a woven strap ( like from a seat belt). It is a lot easier to do a replacement without leaving any visible stitches.
On this one, if I had to hide the stitching like it was originally, I would have had to open up the sandwiched part and do the stitching of the strap, than later on redo the sandwich stitching, but that couldn't be justified economically.

Brgds Jonas

[Samalan]

All I'll say is I've seen other repairs you have done; you do class A work, I'm sure this one is no different. 

[Mulesaw]

On 5/31/2026 at 10:30 PM, Samalan said:

All I'll say is I've seen other repairs you have done; you do class A work, I'm sure this one is no different. 

Thank you so much for the nice words 🙂
Brgds Jonas