Traditional - old tack

The history box of my tackmaking is here. I show only traditional scale stuff, since I don't bother to put an eye on the smaller scales anymore (what comes to tack; I'm a crazy customizer of Schleichs!) and haven't made new tack to them for a long time, let alone improved at all.

Page updated: 15/10/19: Page founded...
- 14/3/20: I did through-read the page, fixed the worst grammar errors and published. 

Soooo... I'm a bit jealous for everyone who has the skill to make really good, detailed tack, and make it work accurately and so on... But for some reason some people are also jealous to me about how I do tack. People may even claim that their fingers could never work on this small stuff. So, with those people in mind, I will show you how "great" my tack was some years ago. No one just 'has a skill', it's all about practice and keeping on working. No excuses.

I started tackmaking in 2013. The first materials I used for tackmaking were some jewellery stuff, like some lace, jumprings, chain and clasps. I mostly made halters for my Schleichs.

Then, the shop I used to buy the materials from, died, and I had no idea where to find lace again. I stopped for a while, until I finally managed to try cutting my own lace from leather pieces. This was in 2014. That way I also started to learn to recognize the best types (texture and thickness) of leather to use for my works.

For very long my tack was bad because I wanted to make sure there's "enough room for adjusting the straps", which meant that the buckle pieces were very short and the straps to go through them were ridiculously long. Todays I finally know how to balance those, fortunately... 

My main goal has always been learning to make halters and bridles for my models, and the latter happened only after 2017. I did some bridles before that, yes, but they weren't really nice. I guess one reason to the difficulties was that I used only sliding buckles, which honestly aren't the easiest to use despite how popular they are among beginner tackmakers. I started to like making and using bridles only after I learned that they must have tongue buckles - and I have a technique to make them from a single wire, too.

During 2019 I finally got enough from my stupid so-called saddles, and read some info about how saddles are built and why, and studied what parts are necessary to have in them, so I can simplify and still make them work as accurately as possible. But before that I really didn't pay much attention to the realism on them, they just had a long piece (flaps) and a pile of leather folded on the seat area and held in place with an overgirth; my saddles didn't have girth straps, proper girths, nothing. They were just made to help my dolls stay in right position on the horse, nothing else.

I had only three traditionals until 2016, and my main favorite to tack up was a old white flockie that had his mouth opened by me with scissors (yes). I made practically all my tack for him, not less because his mouth allowed using bits. That is why my old tack photos have mostly just him in them. 

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HALTERS AND ROPES

I started my tackmaking "career" by making halters. First batch of them were for Schleichs and were shaped more like arabian halters rather than the common stable halters. With traditionals, well, I started with the stable halters since that was a lot easier compared to similar stuff in Schleich scale. One important thing I wanted my halters to have were adjustable crownpieces and nosebands. For long time I also thought that I don't get along with buckleless nosebands since it was difficult to get the noseband parts to accurate lengths; and I don't even like too snug halters, so it wasn't about that the nosebands couldn't have fitted the models... 

Ketjuposkihihna (chain cheekpiece), 2014. Made from anchor chain and suede lace. It is super loose on purpose.

A loose red leather halter... 2014. Way too much excess strap to keep it adjustable, hah. I didn't even have horses who would need this (like drafts!).

A chain halter. 2013. This never became very popular to me since it became just a bundle of chain once you took it off from the horse.

Remu's personal halter, which I made probably at 2014. I destroyed this at some point to recycle the leathers for better projects, and to be honest, this halter never got in use that much, so it had to go.

A "show halter". 2014. This was my first ever halter I made from leather lace that I cut by myself. Once in 2017 or 2018 I added a tongue to the buckle and punched holes to the strap, so it didn't slide open anymore and was cabable to stay in use! I really don't like "updating" old works, but I also want to keep as much tack as possible useable, so that had to be done.

A white lace halter for Salma (my PAM). 2013. This was my first traditional scale halter ever. For first it had "buckles" made from jumprings, but soon I replaced them with sliding buckles made from staples. In 2019 I decided that this halter had seen enough use (the crownpiece strap was worn out) and had to get retired, so it's no longer in use - better now when it's still in one piece.

A light blue lace halter for Spilli, 2014. Well, Spilli wasn't yet himself when this halter was made, but anyway, it's similar to the white one; just has a bit different measurements. Let's see if this has to get retired at some point as well.

Ropes. 2014 and older. The black one is reins, though...

More ropes. 2014 and older. The one in the left was Remu's personal rope and the blue one belongs to Spilli. The one with green chain is just random but very useable anyway. I like how the metal parts in my old tack do darken over time!

A meeting of ropes, it seems. 2014. Okay, there's one chain as well.

BRIDLES, REINS AND BITS

Just like with halters, I started to make traditional scale bridles straight with the more complicated style; they had all parts what a 1:1 bridle would include, and I wanted to make them work. Though, at some point I abandoned the idea of using nosebands and continued to do just browband + cheeks + throatlatch -type bridles. I found nosebands difficult to make for some reason. Another reason to avoid them was because I didn't like how the straps misbehaved when I put them through the browband loops, and to be honest, browbands are difficult to make well because they have to be durable but also have just enough (but not too much) space for the straps to go through. 

The "sand bridle", as I named it after the color. Made in 2013 for classics, but as the bridle was too large for them, I decided it belongs to traditionals then. And that is why I had to do some extra straps to make sure the bridle fits better. At 2019 I tried to photograph this bridle, just for nostalgia and to see how I can handle them now, but my nerves died before I even managed to photograph it properly; the bit didn't stay in place, despite the fact that it's glue wasn't even old.

Orange bridle from 2014. This looks nice (best when not on a horse...), but is too fragile to use anymore, so it can live as a prop in my miniature setups nowadays.

Remu's bridle which I made in 2014. Yet useable, but old and really boring. The Valegro is showing the bridle's 'quality'... 

"Gold chain browband", maybe my oldest double bridle, 2015 or 2016. Maybe even older, but I can't find photos or anything else to prove that. This bridle got retouched in 2018, as I replaced the old chain browband with a leather one (makes it much nicer to use); I also lenghtened the cheekpieces and shortened crowns, so in theory this bridle is fully useable even today. (Photographed on Valegro after retouching the bridle, obviously, and for some reason I wasn't able to put a double bit there, hence the pelham.)

"Packbridle", 2016. This was the first bridle where I made a noseband (not including sand bridle) and it's hanger, and yet the flash noseband. Photographed after some retouching in 2018 (new throatlatch, and a connector strap added).

"Black noseband", a stupidly named bridle from 2016. This got some retouches as well, but not at 2018.

Fake leather lace/suede lace(?) bridle I made at 2015. I never liked this bridle, but it's useable. Just has way too much strap to adjust.

A hackamore called "Simppikset", 2014. I did two cheekpiece options here, short and longer. This was probably my favorite bridle until 2017, because it was possible to put on even the mouthless horses. And the leather in this is awesome, despite going to waste with sliding buckles.

Simppikset with the longer cheekpieces.

Next we have some reins. For way too long time I had difficulties to make my reins look and behave like reins should do. I wanted them to be able to turn into "spare ropes", which seemingly wasn't a good idea, since these never really pleased me. Again, it wasn't until the 2017 before I learned to make reins which actually worked and were in proper length; I still have (and occasionally do) some reins with too much length in them.

2014? I like the material, but the reins are too long and the ends, lock and hook are just stupid. Sad.

Suede lace reins from 2014. Too long and stiff. I made these for Remu's bridle.

Dark brown rope reins from 2014.

Black rope reins from 2014 or 2015. These are actually really nice! Though I could like to replace the old big hooks with something smaller.

Orange leather reins from 2014. Too long and have impractical lock and hook there. I remember the buckle in the bight being super nice, since it has a tongue, but these days... It's just one BIG buckle.

Reins of the sand bridle, 2013.

Blue wool yarn reins. These are way older than most of my tack in traditional scale - I remember these being used with Schleichs! And if they are too long for traditionals, imagine how ridiculously long they were for littlebit scale models. Todays I use these for special situations, like when I photograph bits and need something to put them to hang from. The hooks are staples.

Reins for the "Simppikset" hackamore bridle. These were probably my first properly made reins similar to my style these days. Just a bit too long, made from wider lace and everything overall is just a bit out of scale.

Next come bits. My earliest bits had mouthpieces, because I was lucky to have horses with mouths. Most of these traditional scale ones were made for Remu (the old white flockie), since I didn't get along with blue-tack, which could have been necessary in case I wanted to put bits on "mouthless" horses. Also, the PAM and an unfinished Blue Box custom just weren't that interesting, so I mostly played with Remu only. (When I say "playing", I mean tacking up and photographing, putting dolls on the horse, etc. So the average model horse hobbying at home I assume.) Most of these bits were made between 2014 and 2016, I think, and the material I used (and use even today) was mostly earring pins (spikes).

An american gag.

A test baucher which never worked.

Earring pin curb bit.

The deadly pelham - the first pelham I ever made! I had some problems with finding out how to attach the snaffle rings there...

A single jointed snaffle in gold tone.

Silver toned snaffle.

An average curb bit (despite having measurement errors) with a port in the mouthpiece. The anchor chain isn't removable.

Half circle curb/pelham. I made this probably in 2016. What a device.

Remu's pessoa/multi-ring-elevator bit. Old and ugly but still useable.

A baucher. This works but is just ugly.

The U-Pelham, made somewhere between 2014 and 2016. This started my current pelham making style, as I learned that I don't need to make the snaffle rings round.

S-Curb. Quite useless, though may look nice.

SADDLES

My main goal with my saddles was to help my dolls to sit properly and securely, nothing else. For long, saddle structure was a mystery for me. (Then came the late 2019 and things changed.) You can read the complete saddle history of mine from the actual saddle page.

I don't even dare to say anything about this... I think I'm crazy as I show this here. But yes, this is the first saddle ever that I have made, somewhere in 2014. It never worked, and I have used this "saddle" mostly to rip parts off to use for better projects because of lack of material. (Hmm, are those stirrup leathers there yet? If they are, I could well like to use them to make some bridles!)

I seem to have these in-between pieces with everything... I made this one in 2015 or 2016 as my first attempt to make a saddle with a proper seat. It didn't work, as you can see. The stirrups and stirrup leathers I recycled from the previous "saddle". I still have this monstrosity somewhere with me, maybe I should test how it works these days?

HARNESSES, MARTINGALS, BLANKETS, ETC.

I have made a bunch of these as well... Harnesses are hard, and I don't have space for carriages and such, so I haven't made much. (Excuses?)

I don't know how to make harnesses, no matter what year it is. So... I better just let this photo stay here since I just like how Omar (the doll) looks like with Remu here. I made this pack harness in 2014 or 2015.

A running martingal from 2014 I guess. And yes, there are 8-rings to make it possible to use it for double reins.

Parts for the previously shown martingal.

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I have no idea what to write here. This page isn't going to expand anyway.