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.

The so-called Russian Parade Saddle, Part I

 

The story of this silver saddle is so immense, long-drawn out and personal that I've split it into two posts.  It's had such an impact on me!  Let's be clear at the start that it was Not made by a Russian tackmaker.  The search for who did make it was so hard and went on for so long that I began to suspect it might've been made by a Russian artist;  and in the way of suspicions, this name took root and got stuck in.  I later tried to refer to it as Kotinga's, or as the early Nelson, but no go:  The Russian moniker has become deeply set, in my file records and in my mind.  Sometimes you have to surrender gracefully.  We'll see if I can make 'so-called' stick.

Imagine glimpsing a piece of tack which sent me off on a 5-month Who-Dun-It hunt, the longest yet.  During the Colette Robertson tack collection dispersal (affectionately nicknamed 'Smaug's Hoarde'), I tried to buy it -- an attempt which seriously fell through when the saddle vanished and no one could find it!  Months later, when I did find out who had it, there was a road-to-Damascus moment when I determined, with much excitement and intensity, to build my own copy.  Incredibly, my beloved husband offered to pay for it and let me name my own price!  (not the first time this has happened, but surely the greatest.)  Having decided on this very personal solution, nearly a year went by before anything happened.  Now imagine tweaking a tremendous road trip all the way to Arizona so that we could swing by a friend's house in Texas and photograph the darn thing.  It had been 17 months since I'd first seen it, nearly a year and a half, and I still had only one photo to go on.  Here it is:

photo by Christie Partee

 Upon actually meeting the saddle in person and in the midst of obsessively-close shooting, the whole story took a completely different turn, one I did not expect and which truly took my breath away!  Yes, wildest imaginings do come true, and Texas-size generosity does exist.  The piece was given into my hands, and now it is part of my tack collection -- and I'm still pinching my astounded self.  That was my own Great Surprise.  I dare to think that Colette would be pleased.

The story began on June 11, 2024.  Christie Partee was handling the dispersal of the Hoarde.  She often sent me pix asking whether I'd made a piece or knew anything about it.  I could usually add to the sum of hobby knowledge.  In this case it was a logical question to ask:  The saddle really did look like a Timaru Star II silver parade set.

 But I knew it wasn't.

 That one Christie photo -- the third in this post, the one with the wooden stand -- started an obsession the likes of which I've yet to equal.  I posted it on FaceBook and asked for ideas (June 15).  That was a mistake.  Everybody wanted it (!).  With something like terror I stopped asking the public and went to combing through my collection of model silver parade saddle pictures, assembled over decades, clear evidence of my own focus and knowledge of the field.  Ultimately, from June to November 2024 (5 months), I contacted a total of 13 model tackmakers by diverse methods and as far afield as the Netherlands.  I printed out the photo and took it to BreyerFest;  I asked performance showers;  I asked Eleanor, who usually had all the answers.  The Hoarde's dispersal held its main auction during this time (July 11), but no one there could tell me what had happened to it, let alone who made it.

 

My list of possible tackmakers looked like this:  Erin Corbett, Kirsteen Haley, Shannon Granger Peele, Darleen Stoddard, Lindsey Pinkham, Heather Moreton, Vicky Norris, Evelyn Munday, Charlotte Pijnenberg, Kelly Lane, Wendy Ward, Carol Williams.  I stared and stared at that pic:  Somebody knew a lot about model tackmaking, but there were odd notes.  It was like the artist was very gifted but hadn't evolved very far on basic Western saddle construction, such as horns and cantles.  Why was the cantle binding a spiral-wrapped wire stuck in on both ends but separated in the middle?  None of Cary Nelson's other silver saddles did that!! -- no one did that.  The bit didn't look like a Rio Rondo.  The reins weren't ferruled but beaded.  The whole thing looked... painfully handmade,... either from another universe (hence Russian) or from long ago.  Was this a Linda Spiesschaert (who was dead)?  But it wasn't her style...  Kelda Goerte?  I was grasping at straws and rumours,...

As each artist denied responsibility, the list narrowed to those I had trouble contacting, i.e., who weren't on social media (!).  Cary wasn't answering and Kelda had no email, so I turned, with nostalgic pleasure, to handwritten snail mail, a tried-and-true way to contact off-the-grid hobbyists.  I can't explain why I was so blind for so long, but the 5 months finally opened my eyes.  From the very beginning Colette had patronized Cary Nelson above all.  She had tasked this artist with all her wishes and had made Cary's career as a tackmaker, buying nearly everything she made.  No other tack artist was so abundantly represented in the Hoarde,... and no other tackmaker was so diversely and divinely gifted.  In early October Cary responded to my letter and I learned her old email account had died during BFest.  She had a new one.  With this magical information the answers finally came (Oct 7 ).

"Yes, it looks familiar."   "It's one I made a long time ago, not sure of the actual date."

 Cary confirmed to me that this really was the first silver parade set she'd ever made.  She created much of the hardware herself from a sheet of soft metal.  It's my guess that the date would be in the early 1990s, given the hardware (fancy RR buckles).  I have a capture of a [full scale] Bohlin saddle that is hauntingly close, down to the tassel on the cinch:

photo from Old West auctions

It was very typical of the 1990s tack order scene to be given a single magazine clipping for your sole reference.  If this was the ref., it is to Cary's credit that she managed so detailed a miniature from so little.  Even the cinch chafes match.

 For those who know Cary's style with floss and embroidery, the cinch was a giveaway.

 The delicacy of the spots, the tooling, the method of silvering the pommel all spoke of her work.  The large conchos were made from sequin-like rounds.

 Cary's specialty was Arabian costumes and regalia.  Silverwork and leather tooling are entirely different fields from textiles.  Cary told me how she'd made the corona blanket:  by hand with a single beading needle!!

The corona blanket was incredibly thick and padded, with a roll at the withers.  I learned this is how the real ones are made, to help support the saddle's weight in front.  I have found it typical of model tack and of fantastically focused tackmakers that the first few iterations of a new piece can be too big and out of scale;  certainly I am guilty of this myself.  That phenomenon shows in this corona.

 It was November 4, 2024.  I had spent the fall watching piece after piece of Colette's pass under the hammer.  (Part II of this post will cover this time in more detail.)  I'd worked up my courage to ask for something for myself after having managed one of the most difficult yet amazing feats of marketing I'd ever undertaken, selling 8 TSII pieces (including 6 silver parade saddles) from the dispersal during BreyerFest.  The Group Shoot  I emailed Christie and offered to buy the Russian if it could be found.

 It was then that I learned she had it.  It was one of the surprisngly few but very much deserved pieces she'd kept for herself, a prize for handling the massive dispersal sale.  If there was only one emotion I shared with the crowd (but there were many), it was amazement at how much effort Christie had put in to the job.  She should keep whatever she wanted!!  This revelation answered all the mysteries;  and then, almost immediately, gave me a huge flash of inspiration.  Was I not capable of making silver saddles myself?  Could I not manage to build a copy of the desired object?  Wasn't this the time-honored answer to the impossible dilemma??

 Thus my plans were laid.  The obsession that started in June of 2024 would last all the way into February of 2026:  I would create a copy of this saddle for myself.  Only I'd make it better.  I'd make it so it was indubitably my own;  improve what I could improve;  make it to fit my dream palomino, at that time just an idea;  and satisfy the desire to have what could not be had after many months of brooding over it.  I told myself that finding out who had made it was my deepest reward and satisfaction.  The TSII was famous for fabulous silver saddles;  the BreyerFest sales were a clear and present reminder that I should make more.  This approach also salved the many times I'd watched Colette's pieces which I wanted go to others.  Yes, my mind was made up.

It stayed made up for a year, until October 2025.  But that's another story.

 

 

TSII #458: Breastcollar Finished

 

On the last day of IMTM, April 30, my breastcollar was finished.  Yes I detest deadlines, but sometimes they are useful!  I scrambled to get pictures, choose one, process it and upload it before midnight (actually, before dinnertime).  The total hours for this part of the saddle (which includes the test cheek-piece), came out at an astounding 77, all within the month of April.  Not something to confess when I've been turning down tack wish-orders!

I owe a debt of gratitude to International Model Tack Month, for they gave me the impetus to complete this significant portion of the saddle.  While I feel I barely contributed to their overall group, I did try to show 'how I did it' with the blog posts.  This post will give closer views and also show a variety of horses wearing the finished breastcollar.  

When I told my sister about it she charmingly referred to the piece as a 'breastplate.'  Given all that metal, she's not so far off.  

This next shot may make things look crooked, but recall the extreme flexion of the near fore.  Look closely at the alignment of the top and bottom of the chest shield:  It is centered on the horse.  I lined up two flame pieces so that the bend of the near shoulder would fall upon leather not metal, a trick also seen in the above pic. 

 The last part of the breastcollar's design process was to fall in love with the idea of shading the red garnets through oranges and darker yellows to the lightest citrines, which were almost white, creating a stream of color within the silver flames.  Naturally then I had to redress some of the near side work!  In the below shot you can see some good closeups of the resulting gradations.  Usually they went red-to-yellow from bottom-to-top, as flames really do;  but in some cases I went yellow-to-red, just for contrariness.

 The halves do not match.  That would've been impossible with my assortment of gemstones and my laissez-faire method of apportioning them -- I'm making this up on the spot and I still have a whole saddle to do.  I also submit I was changing my mind almost up to the very end.  Organized?!?  What I was organized about was giving myself the freedom to attend to smaller details later for several of the steps.  The pattern of the engraving and the choosing and setting of the stones was where I did nearly all the work right at the moment of creation.

This may change as I move on to other parts of the saddle and the process becomes more fixed.  But we'll just see how it goes. 

Let's look at other horses trying out this beauty.  The obvious first choice is Kotinga.  I tilted my camera so he was 'uphill' and used macro zoom so he wasn't big-headed.

This is Spirit of Cinnamon, my Stone 'Moonstruck' ASB.  This horse was my only one of this mold for the longest time,... and was the hardest to find, as is typical of specific older Stones (and newer ones, hah).  What surprised me was how the red-gold glow of the breastcollar picked up on this color of mulberry gray.

 Like so many insights, this one seems obvious in hindsight!

This Year of the Flame Horse breastcollar, in its design and with the saddle that will go with it, has an epigram, one of those little paragraphs at the beginning of the chapter which purports to reflect what is to come.  An epigram also provides inspiration, and I'm pretty sure this one did that.  I don't know how to expand the margins (to central-set a block of text) with blogger! so we'll fall back on italics. 

"... It was in his palm, warm to the touch, one of the most beautiful things he had ever seen.  Gold of several different colors had been beaten together with great craftsmanship to make its crossed-circle shape, and on all sides it was set with tiny gems, rubies and emeralds and sapphires and diamonds, in strange runic patterns that looked oddly familiar to Will.  It glittered and gleamed in his hand like all kinds of fire that ever were ... ... Merriman said softly, "The Light ordered that I should be made."... ... from every light in the hall the circle of worked gold caught brilliance, flickering as if it were made of flame."

--- The Dark is Rising, by Susan Cooper  (1973)

And here's Kotinga wearing #458's breastcollar along with the so-called Russian Parade saddle, a piece made by Cary Nelson.

 Although the clash between the two artists' tastes is plain, there yet is an overall congruence.  Each of these halves is a brown-colored silver parade saddle with rows of spots.  The gold accents on the breastcollar go very well with the golden horse, while the black notes on the so-called Russian lend pop and weight, leaning towards the more traditional interpretation of a parade set.  I was surprised at how well these two disparate parts looked together.  They both have curly stuff --- !

 Let's consider this fair warning of my (hopefully!) next blog subject.

TSII #458: Breastcollar Halfway

A lot has happened since the last post on the fabulous Year of the Fire Horse parade saddle breastcollar.  Two technological advances, that of i-pinning (pinning with i-kandis) and the setting of the gemstones, have been invented and/or refreshed.  With these new techniques secured and practiced, the last major questions about making this saddle are answered.  Research and development is over, now comes the work.  There might be design questions in other parts of the set later, but for the breastcollar it's now just a race against time.

Below is a shot that shows a great deal.  The gray lumps are the Thermo-Loc with the next three flame pieces to be engraved, moving from right to left (or near shoulder to the center of the chest) of the breastcollar.  The pocket or seat of the third and largest piece (light color) has had its grain cut, but hasn't been Leather Glow'd yet.  I prefer this coating to give the glue something to grab onto;  Ambroid is not a porous-surface glue.

We also can see the next three pieces after them, destined for the chest shield.  The top two are filed smooth while the lowest, a 2-headed shape, is still 'rough cut' (has raw edges). 

Something that's happened during the halfway stage is that I made all the drops.  Not gonna lie, I was influenced by the fringe on the shoulder epaulets of Mira, the character from Kpop Demon Hunters!  Again, these drops remind me this is a parade saddle, echoing the border strips with their little gold spots. 

Below we can see some of the chest flames more closely.   This is the sequence of their making:  To the right is the raw silver sheet and the paper pattern.  The chisel, hammered into the woodfibre surface, plus wire cutters, does the cutting out.  (It is a single thonging chisel from Tandy's.)  The result is the rough cut piece, in the middle here.  The flame piece to its left has been filed much smoother.  You can see it fits in the top center of the chest.  Leftmost is a piece set in Thermo-Loc, before engraving;  it fits in the puzzle pattern between the chest and near shoulder.

 I said my challenge would be how to hold these flame pieces in place.  I didn't want to use pins.  Nearly all pins contain brass and that corrodes green against leather.  Silver pins were much too expensive and I hadn't found Aluminum pins (okay I haven't looked hard).  One might suspect I'd use Argentium itself, but again the cost would be too high (and the labor prohibitive).  Instead, I'd spent months turning over in my mind using the i-kandis metal.  It was very soft, easily cut and molded, and I had lots of it.

Before I got there, I needed to drill holes for my homemade pins.  This is where I went down a rabbithole I eventually had to back out of.  Oh those rabbits!  They are so tempting!  Below is my trustworthy pin vise (top) and its blue plastic case of teeny drill bits.  I'd already found out the smallest bits would not stay in the vise under the pressure of drilling metal.  (More accurately, they wouldn't cut.)  I needed, or thought I needed, something smaller.  Imagine my delight when I unearthed a half-size pin vise.  It had been buried with my spare tools and unused for more than 2 decades.  This cutie was inherited from Ross Young, my father-in-law, who loved odd little tools and collected eye-glass-repair kits compulsively.

 Here's what it looked like after some polishing:  The smallest pin vise I'd ever seen.

 

You would think this would do perfectly!  But that copper barrel was hollow.  There was nothing to stop the drill bit from backing into space under pressure;  and that's just what they did.  I tried blocking them with some wire, but once again, they wouldn't cut.  My hand pressure was not enough to effect a real drilling cut -- not into metal.  I risked breaking them, as too much pressure breaks all such eensy-weensy drill bits.  When they start bending you gotta quit!

Back to a more primitive, blunt-force approach for my pin holes. 

 This shot shows both how I made my i-pins (for lack of a better name) and the tools I used to make holes.  The X-Acto easily cut little slivers from the 7mm gloss silver square i-kandis (iron ons)(left).  The lower two-inch needle had had its eye broken off long ago and I'd used it for years to hammer starting holes.  The upper two-inch was a slightly smaller gauge and neatly pierced and opened my holes, again by hammering (gently of course!).  The dental pick was the final arbiter and pierced leather beautifully.

Yes, I'm hammering holes in my lovely engraved pieces,...!  No, I didn't take photos of the insertion stage.  But this is what the back side looks like.  The finished saddle parts will be lined with very thin leather so nothing gets snagged.

 The trick worked.  The i-kandi metal was amazingly soft and could be mashed around with pliers.  It was so shiny it blended perfectly with the engraving:  No one could find it.  I had to keep notes on where I'd put the i-pins before I put in the jewels!  Even more amazing, I didn't have to heat up the i-kandi iron and melt the tiny pins,... a huge labor saving, I must confess.

So we come to the jewels.

 My next task was to devise a system to keep track of the gems themselves and where they were to go.  Fortunately, the TSII had already figured this one out:  Tape down a piece of packing tape sticky side up.  This trick was first evolved during the 2013 Goehring saddle.  Goehring Breastcollar Rough Cut

 It was not easy drilling pits into my precious flames.  But the cheekpiece test and the first garnet on the near shoulder showed it could be done.  Eventually a sequence of 4 tools would be used.  Here they are from bottom to top:  The broken-eyed needle, my pin vise with its largest mini-bit, a 1/16" bit with the regular drill, and a homemade tool I call the 'starter.'  This cone-shaped-tip starter was made from hardened iron bar by William D. Bensema, my dad, long before I was born.

 Here's the result.  Some jewels were re-assigned when their holes got either too big or too small;  one hole came close to breaking its piece, so I picked a smaller gem for it.

And here's the real result, after all the stones were set.  I used Triple Thick Glaze as an adhesive.  (I know, I know!  But this stuff was used for the Fountain Art Deco and seems to work.)  Remarkably, all the holes were made and all the stones set in a single day, April 22.  One of the gold i-kandi spots popped off under all the handling and pounding.  That told me it'd been poorly set, so such a test was just as well!  I'll replace it later,...

Can't resist holding it against Spiro!

I am at the halfway point.  But there's still so far to go.  I don't know if I'll make the 30th, but I'm glad to have gotten to this stage and conquered all these challenges.

Cheers for all the entrants of IMTM!  You can do it!