Horse Tack Classes on East Coast

[Archer69]

Does anyone know of classes in the NorthEast US, preferrably in New England, where beginner leahterworker can learn to repair and make Horse Tack? Eastern Tennessee may also be an option, because I have relatives there and cold drive to see them and take the classes at the same time.

Or good books to read and learn from until I can get to classes?

Thank you, in advance,

Archer69

[$$hobby]

google is your friend.

i would do some googling and see what pops up.

also, check you local community colleges.

also check any local leather shops. i know our Leathercrafters store has some classes/clinics. Tandys at one time did the same.

go to your local tack shopes and see if they have anything going on also check their board for anything.

fyi, i just learned it by doing. i started out making some leather cases for my calcuators and i made some holsters. i started out with Stohlmans "how to make holsters" and went from there. It covers saddle statiching (stitching by hand) and other things. its not horse tack, but you will need to stitch something eventually. also, it shows how to finish edges and such.

i asked some horsey friends if they had anything that needed repair and was really choosy what i repaired since i knew my abilities and steered away from saddles. strap goods are somewhat easier to work on since alot of saddlers wont/dont want to deal with it. for me, it was a leanring experince and i asked if they had any "broken/discareded" stuff so i could dissect. some of the stuff i would even try to repair to see how my repair compared to the original. i also took this time to see if i could match the color of the repair since alot of tack will be used/weathered and sometimes you have to try and match the color which is a pia to do.