New bridles

So catching up with all the saddles I have made in the past month, I have completed some bridles for them! In addition to these two english bridles I have completed a breastcollar/bridle set for my ranch saddle but have not had a chance to take pictures yet, so you all have something to look forward to. Anyway, lets get on to the pictures:

First I completed a dressage double bridle for Salinero:

It features a blingy browband.

The other side:

Here you can see the chain chinstrap:

Next I made a hunter bridle for my Ballou Newsworthy:

Full tack shot: 

I thought blingy hearts would be cute for this pony:

Reins for this bridle are still in progress, I am going to attempt laced reins for this set.

I will try to get some pictures of the ranch set up soon!

Tuesday Updates

I thought I would update you all on what has been going on in the Yellow Bird studio this week. Starting with tack-

Now you might recognize this saddle from my last post but I fixed up a few things on it so I wanted to share it in its final glory. 

I also finished a new saddle, this one is a dressage saddle custom fit for Salinero. Not quite finished in this picture, it will be cleaned and polished before it is ready for show.

I started painting my Gretel as you can see, this girl will be a dark bay. 

My SM Warmblood custom is finally complete and ready for colour!

I am also painting this SM which will be silver dapple once finished.

 Here is my progress on my Endurance SM custom, her dark dapple grey markings are there, now she is almost ready for details.

Last but not least, here is one of my newest additions to the herd who arrived last Friday. 

Back to the tackmaking grind

So this week I have been very busy and back to the tack making grind. First I started a new close contact saddle, it is a small traditional scale and was made to fit the Newsworthy mold. Here are a few in progress shots.
 

Here is the finished product: 

I think it turned out great minus the jagged edge saddle pad, which is just a stand-in for now. I will be making a matching bridle and might be showing this set. 

One of the best things about this set up in the elastic stretchy on the left side of the girth, just like a real english girth. You can see it in the picture below. 

One last shot from far away:

But that's not all I got done, I have also completed my traditional scale ranch saddle. This one has quite a few modifications from a regular western saddle. 

You can see from this top view that the seat and seat pieces are one piece unlike my other western saddles. There is also a tooled leather piece under the stirrup where the billet attaches and I've rounded the shape of the saddle skirt.

The other side...

Stay tuned, I have started work on a dressage saddle!