Introducing myself.

[philg9]

To introduce myself,   My name is Phil and I am a long term Harness maker working full time from my workshop in the U.K, specializing in heavy horse harness. I have always had a passion for the heavy breeds of horses as we have the Shire horses, Clydesdales, Suffolk  Punch, Percherons and Belgian Draft horses. My career started off about 25 years ago after having owned and worked Clydesdales in various forms of work and pleasure driving. I took a deeper interest in harness, the mechanics of it, why that strap needs to be where it is and the strength it needs to be to do the job it does. This interest soon started rolling and anyone who has had a horse in collar work has probably had a goat patching the cloth lining on the back or wondering what do do with the cracks appearing in the billets on the ends of the driving reins. I took this interest further  and took it upon myself to find out about stitching repairs.   After reading up with what material I could find I found myself with needles and thread, a little pair of pliers and something that resembled an awl blade and I set to.  Well, Once I had started a couple of self taught repairs and replaced some rein billets something happened, an epiphany I think you'd call it,  a massive one happened to me, sized something like a massive tornado that blew through my bones and I felt stirrings of interest I hadn't ever felt before regarding doing something like this.   I soon realized the bug had bit and from then on, anything harness and leather had to be investigated and learnt.  

In this early time I had the fortune to meet a few people who were already well ingrained in leather work of various types including a couple of saddlers who saw my enthusiasm and felt some pearls of wisdom would not be wasted and it wasn't. I soaked up all I could and was gaining some tools by this time.  Next step after becoming more familiar with my own harness I used for my horses was to start picking up old tired half broken harness and study it's construction,   I went into reverse engineering in a big way, carefully splitting stitching and taking harness apart and laying it out in it's component forms and there started some pattern making to copy what was there to have a go at recreating it by copying what I saw in front of me.  A breeching set was the first major job I attempted. All this happened over a period of about 2-3 years while I was still having to go off and earn a living but had got round to making dog collars, leads, wallets purses etc to sell.  Then one day life took a turn of events I wont go into as it's a long story but this major turn of events meant a life changing decision had to be made, after two days of deliberation of what would be the best, most positive thing that I could do after the mess that just happened.   the decision came to me like a thunder bolt,  and that was I decided I wanted to do leather work and namely harness as my means to earn a living. Once I had made that decision,  turns of events were soon blowing very strongly in my favour like it was all meant to be and I felt my life was chosen to do this so I went all out to make it happen as the fire in my belly to do this was way too fierce to extinguish or get put off by things going wrong and having negatives pounding at me.  The fight was on and I was going to make it happen. I can safely say from those subsequent years, it paid off. I was making a small living form making dog collars etc but also concentrating on the harness by taking in repairs etc. This was my years of learning as I am self taught. I was by this time making basic plough harness and work bridles for heavy horses.  My big break came in the form of being invited to have a small trade stand at the UK Shire Horse Society breed show which is the biggest  heavy horse event in Europe   That was a massive moment so I set to and made some stock and went to this show. Well, the reaction was astounding. I must have given my phone number out to dozens and dozens of people and I actually sold some stock, it reduced me tears when it was over as I couldn't believe people were calling me a harness maker and I sold my first set of plough harness for a single horse.  I soon realized it was crucial I got myself an E mail address. I had never even seen a computer let alone used one but it was going to be necessary.  So that was it, as far as I was concerned I was in business and now 20 years later I haven't looked back and am a long established harness maker with it running in my blood like I was born to do this. My work has gone round the world with an extensive customer base.  English style heavy horse harness is unique and this style paved the way for heavy horses working and showing in harness.  

 

Edited March 22, 2020 by Northmount
Fixed a number of typos since Phil missed the window for editing

[philg9]

Here is some pictures of my work from over the years.

[philg9]

[philg9]

[Neigh]

Hello Phil, I follow your work on Fb and am in awe at what I see!  I am currently looking into making some things for my Clydesdale myself as I simply cannot afford quality such as yours right now and after receiving something hand made for myself recently, I wasn't happy with the quality and wanted to try some bits for myself.  Leatherwork is something I have always wanted to do (hence me being on this site but never posting).  I also was wanting to dabble in other horse related things such as decent dog collars (I have bulldogs) as most I see are tacky and dare I say chavvy!  

I'm sure your work will be greatly appreciated  

Emma

[philg9]

18 minutes ago, Neigh said:

Hello Phil, I follow your work on Fb and am in awe at what I see!  I am currently looking into making some things for my Clydesdale myself as I simply cannot afford quality such as yours right now and after receiving something hand made for myself recently, I wasn't happy with the quality and wanted to try some bits for myself.  Leatherwork is something I have always wanted to do (hence me being on this site but never posting).  I also was wanting to dabble in other horse related things such as decent dog collars (I have bulldogs) as most I see are tacky and dare I say chavvy!  

I'm sure your work will be greatly appreciated  

Emma

Hi Emma 

Ah yes, am quite prolific on facebook.    I have written a few bits oin face book recently regarding terminology of what people call hand made, made to measure, ther eis very mis leading adverts form retailers etc as you have found by buying something that was called hand made but of poor quality, sorry to read this.    And yes, a lot of dog collars widely retailed are poor quality.

Drop me a message on face book to chat on there if you want as will look in here when have time but face book is the main portal to be in touch with customers and horse owner freinds.

[toxo]

That's either a fantastic typo or a very clever goat on line 7.  . Nice to see Phil and I hope you're passing your knowledge on.

[zuludog]

EMMA

Have a look at J H Leather on YouTube. She is a trained saddler who has made videos on various types of leatherwork, including several on dog's collars

[philg9]

3 hours ago, toxo said:

That's either a fantastic typo or a very clever goat on line 7.  . Nice to see Phil and I hope you're passing your knowledge on.

Cheers Toxo,  could see a couple of typo's in line 7 of my intro but couldnt see one that ralted to goats lol,  the word stitching is typo'd,, cnt see an edit button as I do like to re do typos.     As for passing knowledge on, that will happen in a few years when I will want to start slowing down, just havent the time to do training/one to one.  I have done a few student days for those going through Capel Manor but to train someone who has the intrest in heavy horse harness form scratch is very time consuming and would divert fiom me getting orders out on time.  To work with heavy horse harness, ideally someone needs some hands on harness work experience with the horses to gain an understanding the mechanics of it which is quite important and I would expect someone to have that if I was going to pass it on. General leather work would be less time consuming to pass on  

[battlemunky]

Excellent work Sir. I look forward to picking up info from you as time goes on!

[Northmount]

2 hours ago, philg9 said:

cnt see an edit button

Edit is only available for a short window of time, maybe 2 hours.  If you need things edited after that window closes, ask a moderator to do it for you.

Tom

[jcuk]

Thats some real nice work there, you must get real satisfaction when you have completed each new piece of work.

Not enough of this work is shown here so thanks for showing.

 

All the best

JCUK

[philg9]

3 hours ago, Northmount said:

Edit is only available for a short window of time, maybe 2 hours.  If you need things edited after that window closes, ask a moderator to do it for you.

Tom

Got it Tom, thanks. I do usually check what I have typed before I hit the send button to iron out text  but the occasional typo escapes.  I've never posted anything I regret on line so will be safe wth the 2 hour slot  lol.

Edited March 22, 2020 by philg9

[Neigh]

13 hours ago, zuludog said:

EMMA

Have a look at J H Leather on YouTube. She is a trained saddler who has made videos on various types of leatherwork, including several on dog's collars

Thanks, will do!  

[DomsLeather]

Awesome work. You can tell your dedication to your work. It shows. 

[philg9]

13 hours ago, DomsLeather said:

Awesome work. You can tell your dedication to your work. It shows. 

Cheers Domsleather and yes, dedication is what it takes and i have that in bucketloads.