Another Arabian halter

Hmm, I thought I'd mainly be making western saddles... Oh well, I might just as well do something else while waiting for my saddle tree to arrive. This is what I've been working on:


It's for my live show buddy, for driving me to the live show in Amstelveen. I'll probably make a matching collar for the live show in Groningen in October. It's not finished yet. I still need to trim the ends, make the cowries and maybe tassels. I found two versions of this type of halter so I'm letting my friend choose if he wants it with or without tassels.

Some details:

Note that the middle braid is facing the opposite direction.


By far the largest part of yellow Arabian halters (as far as I know) is finished with red:

This one is finished with black. I should have used gold chain but I couldn't find a chain that I liked. Also note the different type of cowrie medallions, with five shells instead of four:

Surprise, suprise!

Every Saturday I help out at a therapeutic riding center. I've been doing it for ten years now and it's really rewarding. Last year they bought a Fjord mare, Ozenka, from a horse dealer (?? not sure if that's the correct term). She's a great horse. Very easy-going, friendly and she's not afraid of special equipment. After some time she started getting fatter and fatter, even after she'd been put on a diet. They called the vet to check if she was pregnant and he said she wasn't. Eventually it turned out she was.

May 13, at 02:30 in the morning she gave birth to a beautiful red dun tobiano filly. Nobody knows who the father is and since the dealer sort of refuses to cooperate it could remain a mystery forever.

Isn't she cute? I'm completely in love!!

Arabian halter

When I first started collecting I planned to stick to Quarter Horses, Paints, Appaloosas and anything else that could qualify as a western horse. For a time it seemed to be working but somehow Polaris managed to find his way into my collection and since I love the bright colours of native Arabian costumes I decided that no traditional Arabian horse could just sneak in without getting at least an Arabian halter. This is my first halter and it's still in progress. The pictures aren't really up to date. It does have a nose chain and I've made the tassles and throatlatch but I didn't get the camera out yet. I'm planning to also make a collar and have them both finished for a show on June 5 in Amstelveen. Maybe in the course of this year I'll also attempt a full costume but I'll have to find a lot of courage to do that.

Headpiece

Lead rope

Cowries


Three of my (many) reference photos