How I make my bridles

First thing's first, I don't use pre-cut leather lace. I use the same leather I make my saddles out of, but seek out the thinner areas with no blemishes. By doing it this way I get exactly the right thickness for straps and can also do more creative ideas. Below is a shot of all the parts required for a saddleseat bridle and there are also some stirrup leathers - can you recognise all the parts?

Once all the parts have been cut and hole-punched, I dye the parts using standard techniques. I place different projects on different pieces of scrap paper so nothing gets mixed up. Once dyed and dried the pieces will go into baggies according to their project. The photo below shows an un-dyed double bridle, a dyed double bridle (on the right), and some scrap pieces that I will use for all the extra fiddly bits (top left). I have to make sure these bridle pieces don't get mixed as although they are both double bridles for saddleseat, one is slightly finer than the other one.

I know many people may prefer pre-dyed lace as their is less chance of the dye transferring to a model, but as long as the tack isn't left on a model too long this shouldn't happen. It's only happened to me when I've been lazy and left tack on between shows a week apart. I would never recommend leaving models tacked up anyway, pre-dyed leather or not, as buckles and stirrups can scratch and reactions can happen to the models finish.

Hopefully the next post will show these bridles finished and with their saddles that I made back before Christmas!