Monday, July 29, 2019

How to Tie a Mecate onto Slobber Straps

I offer these custom slobber straps in my Etsy Store and thought I'd make a short tutorial on how to tie them.


Start off by tying the RIGHT side slobber strap (with the text horizontal to the ground, the text reading left to right)


Start by threading the end of the mecate (23' yacht rope with poppers) from the inside of the strap to the outside.


Pull it through enough to leave yourself about six inches of tail.


Take the tail up and behind the strap, then come down to form a knot.




Now on to the left strap.  This strap gets threaded from inside to outside just like the other, except you're going to slide it down about 12 feet down the rope, give or take depending on how long you'd like your rein loop.




Then pinch the strap ends together.
Twist a loop, with the tail (lead end with popper) underneath. 
Tighten it around the slobber strap.




Hoping this guide is helpful! Thank you to all of my customers for their continued support!

Monday, July 30, 2018

Horse Camping!

Horse camping has always been something I wanted to do, it combines my extreme love of the outdoors with my passion for my horse, and it's DEFINITELY something I do more often.

This was a great trip, that started with a night reserved at the Little Manatee State Park about 25 minutes from the Skyway Bridge in St. Pete, Florida.

The cool thing about the Skyway Bridge, is that there is a little park you can park your horse trailer, and walk straight out into the Gulf, out to a sand bar (a bit tricky to get to if you don't know where you're going though), and ride about chest deep for a long ways. I took my good friends along:

Lizz (right) with her Columbian Paso mare "Ticki Ticki" and Hali (left) with her Appendix gelding "Blazer"


Cisco loves both their horses, but somehow he makes me feel like he only has eyes for me...



Although the horses thoroughly enjoyed the water, they were all a little miffed they couldn't drink it, and pouted a bit.  We rode, and bobbed in the waves on the sand bar while the horses hung out and served as diving boards.


After we were thoroughly worn out, we made it back to the beach, where we found a nice shady spot for a picnic lunch.

While we were enjoying the view, we noticed a solitary dolphin swimming along the beach, right in front of our horses.  We got him on video!

The day blew by way too fast, and before we knew it, we were off to the next part of the adventure. 

We drove to Little Manatee State Park, and enjoyed getting the horses settled into the barn steps behind our campsite.  Because it's the rainy season, we had the place to ourselves.  Nothing a little Mosquito Halt spray can't fix! Or you know, a whole bottle in two days.


This park has an amazing trail system, all easily accessed from the equestrian campground.  


 After getting settled, we went for a quick ride on the green trail system, which had good footing but was about 80% underwater.



Then we came back, gave the horses a shower, and settled into playing Catan Dice while we waited for dinner to cook.


Even though I love the outdoors, it is Florida in July, so I equipped my tent with an AC unit, overall a wild success.  I can be hot all day, and as long as I am with my horse, I don't care, but sleeping in a cool tent made all the difference.  The fact that we also got to take showers with just a 5 minute walk to the people campground, made me feel like a human being when I crawled into bed.  The next day, we rode two more trail systems, taking a break for showers in between.

There were pockets of bugs, LOTS of fun trail obstacles, two days riding bareback in hackamores, through quiet forest and galloping on flat grassy trails lined with palm trees, with great friends on the best horses.  I couldn't be prouder of how Cisco performed.  After three months together, I feel like the best is yet to come!




PS: I'm making a working equitation set, so stay tuned!







Tuesday, June 26, 2018

The "Not Going to Breyerfest" Sale

I have yet to attend Breyerfest... The year I was going to go when I was about 11, I ended up on crutches instead.  As an adult I have been unable to go for one reason or another, and I am forced to live vicariously through all of those who get to attend.

I loved LOVED watching Jennifer Buxton from the Braymere Custom Saddlery blog get to go for the first time last year, and was very grateful that she offered to take some of my tack along with her to sell.  She made me the same offer this year, and I was inspired to make a batch of saddle pads to send with her.  I was so sad for her when she announced last week she couldn't go after all, and I'm once again inspired to make my "Not Going to Breyerfest" saddle pad sale a bit more interesting.  $1 of every pad sold from now until Breyerfest, will go to Jennifer as a thank you.  They can be purchased for $7.50 in my RF TACK ETSY STORE


Friday, June 15, 2018

Lizz the Apprentice

Last year, as I started making more and more custom horse halters, my friend Lizz from the barn started helping me out with things in the studio.  Here she is with her Paso "Ticki Ticki": 

She also has a baby goat named Clover:


In January she joined the exclusive "Pony Club" at the barn when she rescued "Pastry"


(Blue Halter by Lizz)

Not many 15-year-olds have three mouths to feed, and Lizz is always eager for work.  Starting with sewing nose bands, she was a sponge for knowledge and eagerly dove in with learning the other aspects of the process. She's worked hard honing her skills carving, painting, and tooling.  A year later, here is a halter she made from start to finish for our friend Hali's horse Blazer:

 
She also recently made and designed this one for our barn friend Chico:



A few months ago, she embarked on her first model horse tack project.  I'm confident that the result puts most of us tack makers' "first" saddle sets to shame. 

She started with a Rio Rondo pattern as a base, but made it her own, making the bridle and breast collar patterns from scratch.  


This set features things that are found on seasoned tack maker's sets, including:

-Adjustable Swinging Fenders
-Tongue Buckles & Cast Buckles on Headstall
-Hand Carved and Painted Petite Tooling Calfskin
-Custom Iridescent Conchos
-Fringe Breast Collar
-Hand Woven Cinch with D-Rings 

So much attention to detail, I would be proud to use this in my performance setups!









Lizz is offering this set for sale, you can make an offer by emailing me at r.f.tack@gmail.com 

Starting Offer: $150.00