Sometimes the most incredible gift comes your way and makes you almost cry from happiness. That gift was mine this BreyerFest. That's not the end of the story -- I recently found out the same carrier who ferried my gift also ferried one to Alexey Z.! His was not a mecate, nor from Sarah; but when I heard about it I nearly cried again.
Thank you, Sarah and Danielle. Oh my wow. May your kindness someday return to you.
The mule is mine and the bosal, headstall and saddle are by me (TSII); the mecate (braided horsehair rope reins & lead) is by Sarah Hartman. The mecate was my gift. I first ran across this young tackmaker in 2016; there is a blog post that covers this: Why I haven't yet entered the BCC (you'll need to scroll to the end to find her work). Sarah won the BreyerFest Best Customs Contest tack division in 2023 with a silver Parade saddle, and that's when we must have renewed our acquaintance. I'd had no idea she'd been as inspired as she was by our discussions. It is always deeply wonderful when I come across a new tackmaker who shines; but how even more wonderful, how deeply amazing, to know that the TSII had a hand in it.
Imagine my surprise when Danielle Feldman walked into the Clarion Room 612 and handed me a little pink envelope and a small box. Within nestled a tiny glasstop metal can: the most perfect scale-model rope can you've ever imagined, except that it was brilliant magenta pink!
Sarah had written me a letter. No FB for her; she was using old style communication, a written letter, the sort of thing I had used for 15 years before email and about 32 years before social media took over my world. (She obviously has email, so don't take my crowing too seriously!) I'm expressing my nostalgic delight in the old-fashioned relief of this form of communication. I only regret I'm going to use email in the answering; it's too quick, too handy. But oh, I am impressed by this tackmaker.
I've also been impressed by this photogenic mule. I've rarely had a mule in my herd. Aquavitt spoke strongly to me tackwise and now I'm glad I listened. I had a lot of fun getting portraits out of her with this, as you may see in the future.
When the mecate arrived I had just acquired my Other Fish in the Sea Stone Remington. I was so excited that I put it on him willy-nilly. In this photo you can get closer to the detail.
Sarah wrote that she used Shetland Sheep's wool for the mecate. She braided it by kumihimo, the Japanese method of using a disc and bobbins. If that were not difficult enough, the wool couldn't really take the strain so this ingenious tackmaker blended in some invisible polyester thread. I never would have found it if she hadn't told me. I am amazed by this mecate's texture; it is neither too fuzzy nor too slick, but seems to land perfectly in the Goldilocks zone of a real horsehair rope. I've explored scale model mecates before: Three Mecate Artists and I think this particular one falls between the TSII and the Gillespie one. You could say it's a little smoothward of the hairiest hair ropes I've handled. It's like awesome.
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