Rachel Fail Custom Tack

I can't contain my excitement! I was commissioned by Breyer this year to make a barrel racing saddle set , and after months of waiting, I'm so excited to see the final product! Photo on Breyer's Website  Here are the prototypes I made for the creation of this set: I can't wait to buy one of these at my local tack store! It looks like Breyer's version is really close to the original, and I'm so excited to see it in person!

As many of you know, I started making custom horse halters in 2016.  The first one was for my horse love, Jasper. I lease him, and he's got to be one of the best horses I've ridden, period.  He's filled a whole that hasn't really been filled since my paint gelding died in 2012. I recently made him another fancy halter, and thanks to my father-in-law (I never have enough hands to bring my camera AND the kids), I have a great photo of him with my eldest sporting his new one: This photo makes my heart melt. The halters have been a joy to see on the ponies at my barn, so much of what I normally make gets shipped and I never see it again.  I am selling them in my Etsy store now. I sold enough over Black Friday/Christmas, that I decided to let my creative juices flow a bit more and make some variations. "Magic" is a beautiful black horse at the barn that has become a favorite model of mine: I also picked on him to model the new sports team halters

Making the Australian Light Horse set also required me to get creative and make some items more rarely seen in the model horse world.  Swords, scabbards, rifles, and unique saddle bags. Starting with the sword, I started with the handle. I carved it from some hard craft wood, and shaped some  tin coated steel sheet metal  drilling a hole with a #60 drill bit into the metal and wood in preparation for my tiny screw and washer.  I made the shaft of the sword from a piece of aluminum tubing, crimped and sanded to fit the correct shape.  I also drilled a slot into the wood for secure fastening.  I fit it into some 1/8" brass tubing for a scabbard. I added two brass rings at the top (once piece with two loops on either end), to prevent it from sliding through the scabbard frog on the horse shoe case, by making a slot in the back for the piece to fit into.  Next was the rifle... More aluminum tubing...  I also made a pair of "wallet" saddle bags..

I could write a long post about 2016, and reflect, but instead I'm going to get straight to tack, because I'm so excited to share more about this recent project. I love a new challenge, and I decided to take some photos along the way while making this Australian Light Horse  tack set.  I have a few notes for the next time, but I'm very pleased with how this came out for being a first attempt. This set produced a lot of first for me, one of which being a partially exposed tree that had to be real wood and metal. The second was an Australian style saddle, which I have managed to never make in my 8 years of serious tack making. After making a pattern I was happy with, I started making my tree with two carved down pieces of Balsa wood.  It's a lightweight and flexible craft wood, but next time I'll be using a harder wood and carving more shape into it I think.  Using some brass craft metal (K&S Engineering found at Hobby Lobby), I made some nicks in wh