Restoring a Draft Pair Harness

 

Restoring old draft harnesses isn't sexy, yet there is a reassurance about the job.  This particular set of harness is older than most.  At 41 years -- built in 1985 --  it is arguably the first spotted show draft pair harness I ever sold to a customer.  It is the oldest harness I've ever tried to restore (to date).  Rebuilding attempts in the 80s might pre-date it, but those were for myself.

No he's not a shrinky, just angled different

 I took on the job last year [2025], but it's only been since late May that I've been able to get going on it.  The plan was fairly simple:  Clean, polish and replace the buckles with gold-filled wire.  Easy, right??  That was before I realized that the leather, dried out for decades in Colorado air, had done something I've rarely seen,... and never been able to fix.  Despite heroic efforts by others to save the tack with oiling and greasing, the straps had no strength and would break at a touch.  Everything but the patent was cracking and falling apart.  The thing was cursed.  I made up a term for it:  Dehydration disintegration.  There was nothing for it but complete replacement.

Harness restos can be boring because you can't really see the difference between old and new;  but let's try.  Here is the old pole strap/breast strap arrangment:  note the dullness of the brass.  Also note the large-ish split rings on the ends of the hames;  that loewr hame strap has its own keeper, but trust me that keeper isn't inset or sewn into the collar in any way.  For this collar, that was a poor design choice.  The hames didn't like to stay in their groove.

Here are the hardware parts of the old pole/breast arrangement.  If anyone is wondering whether they should use brass wire in model tack, let this be the answer.

Whenever bare brass touches leather, its copper interacts with the tannins, creating verdigris.  The verdigris, mildly poisonous, is thick on the tongue buckles.  Below:  one bright ring stands out:  it's been polished.  The strap at upper right is a new one;  it connects the collar top (at the withers, not the peak) to the backpad hook, and its ring and buckle are gold-filled.  See what I mean:  Even close up, there's not much visual difference in a photograph between the old brass and the bright gold!  But in person, yes, it is noticeable.

I polished and polished.  I kept the keepers;  heaven help us, they seemed strong and there's very little strain on keepers.  Some of the old lace could pass my 'pull test.'  But, once started, I wanted to be consistent in replacing strappage.  My shop's lace has been kept in airtight dark.  No oiling or greasing was done on the replacement straps;  their very newness should keep the harness safe for another 40 years, provided, I think, that the set is kept in a reasonable climate and not sunned too much.  (On this point I offer up my own model harness collection, approaching 50 years and kept unsealed in normal indoor air but not direct sun, oiled maybe once with Lexol and rarely cleaned.  None of my tack has done this disintegration trick.)
 

Here's one of the old martingales.  The brasses (here, the crescent) were precious, imported from England (Lenham Pottery) at the time, as were the hames.  The brasses were so expensive each harness has only five.  They are gold-plated pot metal, and due to that gold they had nothing to fear from those 41 years.   Gold is the answer, either by plating or filling*, if you want tack to last for a really long time.  For full scale it is damningly expensive but at model scales it can be afforded.

*plating = 0.05% gold by weight, cheaper than filling = 5% gold by weight

 What's particularly charming about handling this ancient harness is seeing the design.  I was just starting out back then;  I didn't have the hardware options we have now, but I knew the function of the parts.  I was trying to get the pole strap/breast strap arrangement to show a harness brass on the chest (pretty ornamentation) and yet still be able to stop a loaded wagon via the breeching, which lines up with it (harness is lines of force).  I didn't know I could make a roller buckle for the breast strap.  I opted for a dee ring, sleeved with an aluminum ferrule or roller, handmade of course.  The snaphook fastens directly onto that dee.

 Thus you have the pole strap, whose lines of force run directly from the end of the wagon pole in front of the horse (imagine it snapped to the hook), between the front legs via the martingale (drooping here), through the belly ring, splitting to the 2 sidestraps and fastening to the breeching, which wraps around the hindquarters.  The breast strap, running from side to side, helps hold up the pole strap and adds some 'holding-back' power from the collar and traces.  Between and beneath, the beautiful chest brass shines out, neatly out of the way.  The top strap of the martingale wraps around the collar throat, and its buckle isn't even sewn in.  There is an elegant simplicity here.

Curiously this harness's chest brasses were mounted on flat leather chafes,... unlike the patent leather which backed every other brass.  You may be sure I replaced them with patent!  Did I run out? or was just sloppy??  I'll never know.  It's equally a mystery to me why the patent leather would not be so affected by the dehydration disintegration.

Earlier I mentioned the lower hame strap.  Here we see the old (right) and the new (left).  I've made the rings in the hames as small as I could (and from stainless steel) and inset 2 keepers so the hames can't possible escape.  There is barely room for them, but they are critical.

 And here are the upper hame straps.  The old harness didn't know how to inset, or sew into the groove, its hame strap keepers.  It thought merely using keepers on the hame straps would do the job.  But patent is slippery.  The newly restored collars feature keepers sewn into the groove,.. a real trick, using awls and chisels to get the lace stuffed in the cracks and then triangular needles to stitch them down, along the seam lines.  It may look similar, but believe me, once you've fastened everything up those hames are not gonna slip around any more.

These collars are very old,... from the start of my career.  They are probably unique, an evolutionary step on the way to today's methods.  Here's a glimpse of how I was solving the problem of making collar peaks in miniature.  

There is a lot going on there, not least using patent for the bottom face, something we don't do nowadays.  The large collar-top buckle in the above shot is turned back;  normally it is angled the other way and the wide (3/8") lace passes through it, forming the collar top.  The double wire, looking straight, is the bottom of the bell wire, coming out of the peak and going forward to form the hook.

Most amazing of all, all the spots were made from straight pins.  That's not something I would ever do again!  I'm leaving those little bits of metal alone.  If they're not fiddled with they'll lie pretty much in place.  Egad, the power of 25-year-old tackmakers.

Left new, right old

Next up:  girths and backpads...

More Mink Art

 

 I do so enjoy supporting my favorite hobby artist!  She has just about never disappointed me.  I am very tickled to finally have a painting by Mink—!!  I don’t know know how she manages to minimize repeats on the bonus stickers, either.  The skills of this particular equine artist are nothing short of astonishing.  There are other artists I support, but this one gets the lion's share (despite being named after a small mammal)...

We'll start here, at the box stage.  I'd never actually bought a framed painting from a live artist that I knew before, blush blush.  When this arrived I knew instantly what must be inside.

It's been much too long since I've shared my hauls by Mink [Sarah Minkiewicz-Bruenig].  I have been collecting pins all along, and at this point I have 9 black velvet display boards, of which 4 are full and the other 5 nearly so.  I was familiar with how pins arrived;  I open those bubble envelopes by cutting the adhesive with a knife, thus saving some of it for future use.  In contrast, the box was stuffed tight with cornstarch-base packing peanuts and the painting was wrapped in brown paper.  Sorry no shots of unboxing,...  The stretched canvas was stapled onto a slim but firm wooden frame.

Up to this point the only non-HSO art I had by hobby friends was a small bear portrait from Sue Rowe and a couple of painted rocks by Heather Moreton.   I think I was jealous of others' larger paintings, seen while visiting.  When this piece by Mink turned up, I thought the riverine theme perfect for a pair of canoeists.   I was right -- George loves it too.

It's now hung in my basement's only hallway, right outside the computer room.  Amazingly, there was a small nail at the right height in the wall, hidden by the previous poster.  No wires needed!!  The whole piece makes me so happy and uplifts an area that was stuck in a rut decor-wise.  Best of all, it was quite affordable for a one-of-a-kind Mink piece.  Win win!

The 3 packages contained a total of 4 stickers, another surprise from Mink.  It always blows me away how she can include stickers I don't have.  The Dancing Horse, Roo #74, neatly fits in.  I love all the pintos and that one was new to my collection.  

The pair of "bookmark" shaped Talisman horses was a winner -- I didn't have them either.  The round orange-colored medallion is a duplicate,.. but a very pretty one.  Bling is the rule with Mink stickers and I'm so spoiled by it I hardly even look at non-sparkly stickers anymore...

Of the two pins, the Runequine Talisman III (left) is the most unusual for me.  Normally I do not collect these highly stylized horses, preferring the Dancing Horses, the Imperial Unicorns and the other more realistic works.  But I already had a pair of Runequines and somehow this one sneaked in to keep them company, and to match the first purple.  Here he is in package,

 and here he is on the board with his friends.   The little "cherry pops" in the centers of the spiral joints are such a nice touch, and yes, they are glitter.

 Apparently I'm a sucker for matching sets, alack, alas.  Speaking of matching sets, looky here.  The Zigbys have been having a field day.  I now have all of them but the very first, the Rainbow.

How Mink manages to find new ways to express and celebrate the variations of this dauntless little guy is beyond me.  Zigby leads a charmed life.  With all the releases in one place like this, it's hard to pick a favorite.  However I do have one:  I love the Halloween Zigby best.  The glittersparkle in his white, unseen here but visible in this 2023 blog post Three of a Kind, is unique amongst Zigbys (unless the Rainbow has it,...), and rare in all her pins.  The white Runequine to the left of my matched pair above has it, though unseen here.

I'm going to include one last shot of these six.  It is less exposed and tries to show their colors more clearly.  You can see the copper on the upper left, and the green Vernal is a bit more in focus.

For those who are going to BreyerFest:  I have a fistful of Minkiewicz pins for sale, some of them duplicates.  See them in Room 612!

Swans at Crex Meadows NWR

 

This post covers a bare hour or so in a 23-day birding trip.  Much of the trip was intense, and very good bird-wise, but didn't get captured on film.  This particular encounter was quite special for me though, and --miracle of miracles -- I got it with my own camera.  The date was May 27;  like nearly all the best birdwatching activity, the time was early in the morning.

Crex Meadows National Wildlife Refuge is a rather famous birding destination just outside Grantsburg, WI, along the upper western border of that state.  It's about halfway between Minneapolis and Duluth.  This tiny town is centered around birding tourism, and we stayed at a very nice hotel there, the Trail Inn.  It had clerkless check-in with a magic unlock box for the key (a first for us).  The NWR was barely 10 minutes out of town, a luxury that later resulted in us returning to the hotel for naps.  This had its own adventurous consequences, which perhaps I shouldn't emphasize;  let's just say we got lucky and the hotel's contractor-at-large rescued us from a potentially bad lockout situation, saving our bacon.  I would still recommend that hotel, perfect for everything, except, perhaps, internet connectivity,...

At this point in our trip, 2 weeks in, we had seen Trumpeter Swans by the dozen, but only one cygnet (baby swan).  I was getting desperate.  Swans, swans, swans, lumps of white everywhere, in fields, in lakes and ponds;  but cygnets??  The Canadas had goslings, but the tiny gray cygnets were missing.  I was really starting to worry. 

And then we pulled up alongside Crex Meadows first big lake and there they were.

 I scrambled with my camera.  I was shooting from the driver's seat.  Forgive the slight tilts to some of these.

I was delighted to see six cygnets!!  Yes, FINALLY at last!!  There was just one problem,...

 

Mom and Dad were so busy eating I couldn't get anything but their tails.  Now to be fair, these big birds, the largest Swan in the world, need to eat a lot.  The weather had been so cold for half our trip, drizzly and rainy too.  Spring was very late.  It was a test of our own endurance;  what must it have been for them?  But I'd obsessed over those little guys.  Anyone can see goslings and ducklings;  I wanted cygnets, dang it!!  I stuck to my guns, and here, at last, I was rewarded.

 Over time, I zoomed in and shot better, and the swans moved gently away.  They weren't afraid so much as seeking better grazing.  Below, the right swan has a grass blade in its bill.

 For the rest of the trip I never saw 6 cygnets together again.

Here are some shots of the larger Refuge.  Later we would have incredible adventures here, culminating in our 198th bird of the trip (Nighthawk) and me hearing a wild Bittern calling for half an hour.  Oh that was truly meaningful to me and magical, the crown and crest of a fantastic trip,..

For the record, we got home with 201 species.  The 200th was the Prothonotary Warbler and the 201st was Ruddy Ducks;  both of these were at Maple River, in MI.  Below, Crex Meadows first lake again, showing the far shore.

 Here's a patch of American Lotus, unusual in its number of blooms so early in the cold year.

These last 2 shots were taken with my cell phone, proving, I suppose, that I can take pictures when I really want to.  It is so easy on a trip like this not bother with them,... but I know there will be times I would regret that.  See all those little white dots on the water?  Those are Trumpeter Swans.

This last sign explains the origin of the name.   This is also about the only place where we touch horses on a bird trip;  wire grass was used for stuffing cushions and making floor mats (amoung other things) in the horse-drawn vehicle era and up through the early 20th Century.

 Thank you for your patience!

Future blog posts will attempt to cover visiting Corky & Ardith, Paula and Eleanor, Mink stuff [Sarah Minkiewicz-Breunig], other people's tack collections and,... who knows!

 

The so-called Russian Parade Saddle, Part II

 

 In the ongoing saga of my so-called Russian silver parade set, one constant appears to be what's called an emotional roller-coaster.  Once I had found the piece, I couldn't have it.  Once I had decided to make a copy, other pursuits rose up and shoved that aside.  An enormous attention-sink and distraction, national in scope, was going on beyond our lives;  although writing my new book was the main reason for suspending saddle-making, that other distraction ('chaos and cruelty') contributed so much stress.  For eleven months - November 2024 to October 2025 - I repaired tack but made very few new pieces.  Then the Russian's most amazing roller-coaster of all happened, my own Great Surprise -- and I still didn't get going on making the copy!  Not until February of this year (2026) did the silver saddle creative impasse finally break.  One has to wonder at the powers of the Muse.  

 In this second half of the story, let's start by going back to my experience of Colette's dispersal, first the July 11 (2024) auction and then the long-running FaceBook group.  Not only did it set the tone for much of what came next, it is historically interesting.

D'Arry Jone Frank holding up a silver saddle set

 The July auction, held at D'Arry's house outside Lexington KY, was a roller coaster of its own.  When I realized the Russian was not present, I switched targets.  I tried to acquire the Darleen Stoddard silver-and-gold set, going up to four figures,

but Sandy Sanderson got it.  To have been the first person in the parking lot, to have brought more funds than ever before to an auction, -- and then to go home with nothing, -- resulted in a kind of stubbornly-determined rage.

 

With the commencement of the FB group online auctions for the tack Hoarde, I had more success.  Shortly after BreyerFest I got another Stoddard saddle I'd wanted ever since I'd seen it.  Two Saddles

 

 As it turned out, this, plus a number of Western saddles Colette had made herself, would be the only pieces I would obtain from Christie's auctions.  The emotional consequences of seeing a lifetime collection slowly pass by and not being able to bid for more than one expensive saddle were... curious.  I really think this slow accumulation of frustration had much to do with my plumping for Sassy on December 27, 2024.  She was my first post-Erin Stone factory purchase, and she taught me new things about obsession, a separate story.  Palomino Insatiety

 

After Stoddard's but before Sassy, I fell madly and deeply in love with yet another auction saddle (Dec 6).  Go figure!  At least I have taste!  It was a Donna Allen oak leaf barrel racing round-skirt and it quickly moved beyond my limit.

 

 This case I also managed to contain and solve by promising myself I'd make a copy later.  

  

I have been astounded by many things in the course of the dispersal of Colette's Hoarde.  The drive and desire that accumulated it in the first place, and my own capacity to obsess, have been almost embarrassing.  Geo's generosity and support, and Christie's devotion in managing the auctions of all that tack, over the many months, have been humbling.  Christie's devotion to Colette was clearly to be seen.

Not least, I have been astounded by the artisanry inherent and displayed by that Hoarde.  Cary Nelson's ouvre is nothing short of jaw-dropping, Olympian and Michaelangelo-like:  the greatest tackmaker, by volume and by skill, this hobby has ever seen.

 Last and least, I have been astounded at my own skill, as so many artists are.  By my perseverance to find out Who-Dun-It;  by my blinding-moment when I resolved to build a copy for myself;  and by the quality, over time, of my own contributions to Colette's Hoarde.  That skill is best demonstrated in the story of the Fountain Art Deco saddle and Paula O'Keefe's Great Surprise, a sister story (and one this blog may hopefully eventually get to).  

In Paula's story the angelic enabler was Eleanor Jones Harvey.  In my so-called Russian case the angelic enabler was Christie Partee.  A second angel, well I know, was George.  My dear one retired in 2022 and I started work on a second book on model tackmaking.  Three years later, in 2025, the Young family did not take a spring trip (for various personal reasons, not the book.)  After untold effort, on August 30th, it was finally finished and uploaded.

For more than two years, ever since my Mom had passed away in May of 2023, my Dad had been building a relationship with a significant other in Tucson.  I very much wanted to visit them again.  George being the master trip-planner he is, we envisioned the long cross-country run:  Three time zones, 10 states (if you count WV), three weeks.  This time I wanted to swing by Terrell, TX, where Christie lived.  By and large the trip was a fantastic success.  On the way back to PA, we arrived in Terrell on October 18, 2025.

 

 (The horse Christie is holding was the one I happened to take on the trip.  The box I am holding is the so-called Russian.)

 It was a truly wonderful visit.  I learned a great deal.  We were both treated to the most delightful hospitality.  Amoung other things I photo-documented Christie's model tack collection.  (Yeah, yeah, another blog post subject -- !  Not the first one like that I've put on hold either,...)  I know I'm repeating the "year-and-a-half with just-one-picture" line, but that really defines the depths of my interest.  My pent-up determination to capture every inch of the saddle may be seen in all the "2025" close-ups of these two posts, shot through my magnifying stand lens.  There were 49 pix that day of the Russian alone.

leather lined face ornaments

Imagine my profound discombobulation when, almost done photo-documenting, Christie calmly announced I could have it!!!

"It is yours.  I'm finished with it.  I don't want it any more.   I set this saddle aside for you,..."

I was stunned.  I did not know what to say.  This was my own Great Surprise.  I refused, at first -- it is very hard to turn around an obsessive-compulsive person, especially after so many months of determination.  That must have been a difficult moment for Christie.  

 Like the good hostess she is, she gave me time, not insisting, but letting me see the logic for myself.  "It's done everything I wanted of it," she said;  "I have no more need of it now.  I don't want it anymore."  It took a long time of gentle pursuasion and talking of other things (and all my pix taken, including putting the saddle on Sassy), before the Titanic started to come around.  

The final kicker was George. For some reason I could not articulate later (he asked why and I could not answer), I needed to discuss this volte-face with him.  Not that I needed his permission, just that every major decision of our lives might be a shared thing.  But Geo's answer in this case was an emphatic washing-of-hands.  "I have nothing to do with this," he told me.  "It's entirely up to you!"  Floundering but finding bottom, allowing ever-present greed to blend with true deservingness, I briefly resorted to 'what would be best for the saddle itself?' but the answer was increasingly plain.  We tenderly packed it in its crystal-clear carrying box, another gift.  This prize was coming home with me.

 To want something terribly -- to have it denied -- to come to terms with that, and lay your own plans to replace it, ---  And then to have it given to you!  I ask ye, is there a more emotional roller coaster than that!??  I had never stopped wanting it.  But the entire episode has done a number on my capacity to want something.

It was mine,... 

I would still build a silver saddle for myself.  This way I'd have the inspiration right in my hands.  Nothing is more fun for a tackmaker than to handle and work with a favorite piece.  I needed to make my own version, and I would, and this gift would not change that, but made it easier.  Here was a project worthy of me and a perfect next piece after having spent 3 1/2 years on braidwork.  Also, I hadn't made a saddle in 6 years, since 2020.

 Silver saddles are older than braidwork for the TSII.  I built my first one, the painted-&-blue-jewelled (yes!), sometime around 1979, after I'd marched in the 1977 Tournament of Roses.  Duke's Hackamore, generally considered the braidwork foundation piece, appeared circa 1984.  They both came out of the college years (fall 1978 to spring 1982).  Choosing between them is exactly like choosing between your own children.  You love them equally but they're different from each other. 

As my readers know, the copy, TSII #458, is already embarking on its own saga.