More apologies and a photoshoot!

I'm so sorry about the long wait - everything's so busy! However I did have time this afternoon to do a little photoshoot of random things around my model horse stable yard.

My pretty terrible Lipizzaner mare custom!

My other Lipizzaner mare - Deja Vu

Terrible photo, but it's the cart!

My Totilas in his smart red headcollar!

Random Hanoverian mare in her hand made rug

Kingsbridge Diomedes in his hand made halter

Corn on the Cob's handmade rug

I think she's outgrown him...!

3 in 1!

I made a 3 in 1 set yesterday, modeled on Gem Twist. It is a waterproof turnout set, with a detachable hood, mask and rug. Please comment! Here are the photos...

The 3 in 1 set. Complete with all features.

The hood and the mask

Close up of the hood and the mask- using velcro. 

Just the mask close up.

 

And then the complete thing.

                                  

As you can see in the photos, you can take the set apart, so you can just have the hood on its own, the mask on its own, or the rug on its own, etc! There are many different ways of putting this rug on a horse, and would make a perfect travelling set! I think this might have to be a product on my website - what do you think? Comment below if you think it is good, or comment on anything if you like! Bye!

                       

Stud guard tutorial

Finally! A tutorial! I'm sorry about the delay, I don't really have time at the moment to blog every day. I had my phone on me and thought it would be a good idea to do a tutorial, so whilst my friend made a stud guard for me, I took the photos and uploaded them to this blog. For those of you who didn't know, a stud guard is for horses which tuck up their front legs so far back their hooves touch their belly. When a horse is wearing studs, this could cause serious injury so a stud guard is great for that purpose. Most of my tack tutorials will be Traditional scale, as I might be starting up a model horse tack making business and most of the products will be Traditional scale. Keep track of my blog so you know when you can get things from the website! If this tutorial is not clear enough please comment below and I will respond as soon as I can!

You will need:
Leather
Craft foam (mine is quite thick but you can skive it down a little)
Elastic or leather lace
A glue gun or some EXTREMELY reliable glue (the reason 'extremely' is in capitals is because when you fold the leather round the craft foam it should be able to stay. In other words a glue gun is your best option).

Let's get started!

1. Cut a thin strip of leather, size depending on your model's scale. Make the length a little longer than the length you would like your stud guard to be.

2. Cut an oval shape of craft foam like this. Glue it on to the leather like this.




















3. Glue two leather lace strips on to the sides. These are the girth straps. Add buckles if you like.

4. Cut a large piece of leather, making sure that it will be able to wrap all the way around your stud guard. If you can skive it otherwise it may be too bulky.

5. Wrap and glue your stud guard in leather, and you're done! Add some buckles if you would like, and you can even adapt this tutorial to have it attach on to the original girth. If you have any questions or comments I would be extremely grateful! See you soon for another post.

Apologies and customizing!

Hi! I'm sorry about the long wait, but I was on holiday and didn't take my model horse stuff so there wasn't anything really interesting to blog about. Tomorrow I'll post pictures and the results of the live show that I went to so keep checking my blog.

At the moment I'm customizing the retired Schleich Lipizzaner mare (not the cantering one with the plaited mane, the walking one with a darker mane). I've had her for quite a while now and whilst most of my horses are kept in beautiful stables, she's kept in an old magazine holder which look like stalls. The holder has these sliding doors which are perfect, but she's kept in the middle one so I can't access her easily. This means that every time I take her out of her stall it's impossible to not hit her on anything. She has many scratches and I've been meaning to customize her for a while now but have never got round to it - there were more scratched horses that I needed to sort out (Star Appeal and Cobba Featha, see Creativity post for more).

Today I went into an art shop empty handed, and came out with a bag of fancy paintbrushes and new acrylics! I sat down at the table and set to work. I'm going to do three white coats and I'm going to keep her grey, I love greys. Comment below if you love them too!

I almost forgot to mention that I got a new model! He's called Gem Twist, and is part of the retired Breyer Fox Hunting Set. I'm not sure how many of him were made, or if he's of any value at all, but I love him and his clip! Click on this link if you want to see a photo of him (not the one I have).

Here are the pictures:

The finished bridle of Totilas!

Halfway through the saddle (two girth straps and half the girth!)

Cloudy Day custom (the first white coat)