Visit, and Lisa's harness

Yesterday I spent most of the day at Lisa's new property. Her previous location was on the other side of the city, around 2-3 hours from me, and now she only lives half an hour away! This is very exciting as now I can go drool at her ponies as often as she will let me.

We had several goals to accomplish while I was there. First and foremost, to meet her new Welsh ponies, Trinity and Precious (who are adorable). We also had to brainstorm out the rosettes we are going to order for our joint-run live show, Performance Extravaganza, which will be in August this year, and also work out new colours to be used for her live show, Mini Mania, in May.

The last goal was to attain measurements of her Depeche resin so I can start on his harness. Of course I forgot to take my measurement list with me, but I guess I can always go up and take new measurements if needed. ;)

We had some time to kill after lunch, so also went through her (huge!) tack collection to cull out the items she no longer uses to put up for sale. I think Lisa has more classic saddles than traditional - which is curious as she has far more traditional-sized models! We discovered a number of pieces that could be better (and fetch a better price) if spruced up, so I've taken those home to have a play with and see what I can do. These items are from when she first started collecting in early 2000s.

So here are the items, untouched, and what I plan to do to them.

Smallish classic Western saddle. I intend to redo both cinches and put etched buckles on. Remove the tapaderos, since they are only legal for Western Parade and this saddle isn't all that flash. Add straps to the breastplace, and possibly make a new one. I may also play with putting some excess leather underneath the cantle to push the back up, as the saddle is not made on a tree.

Black large classic Western bridle with black and white romal reins. I will put on a new headstall and bit. The reins are pretty cool - they are posable like rawhide, but feel more like waxed cotton or something, so I don't intend to play with those.

Traditional one-ear Western bridle with carved cheekpieces , rawhide romal reins and fancy bit. I really like the bit on this bridle. It looks handmade and is really different. It almost looks like a parade bit. The cheekpieces will stay, but I will give it a new headstall and change the buckles to tongue buckles. I will probably also upgrade the reins.

Traditional bridle with nylon purple brow and nosebands. Basically I will only be salvaging the hardware from this bridle, and using it on a purple and white racing bridle for Lisa.

Classic hackamore bridle with rawhide bosal. The bosal is REALLY cute. I would totally be buying it if I had any young horses to use it on. New headstall and cheekpieces, new reins (will attempt to tie a mecate too!)

I REALLY want to start working on this right now, but since the carts are finished, Lisa's harness is more important. I think I will keep these spruce-up items as treats to do once the harness is finished.