You know when you’re like “I finally have a semi-free weekend, I’m gonna do all the things!” and next thing you know you’ve massively overcommitted? Oops.
Originally my trailer was supposed to go to the painter on Saturday but the guy flaked out, thus I found myself at the barn early on Saturday morning with nothing to do. So I started WD-40ing every nook and cranny of the trailer, then organized her, cut off some screw ends leftover from the roof repair, siliconed lots of stuff, took a wire brush and got all the flaking paint and general funk off the inside, then pulled up the mats and swept it all out. I originally wasn’t going to repaint the inside but now I’m thinking I will after all, since she looks a lot better after a thorough de-flaking.
I started trying to figure out how I was going to hang the new wall mats and pads that I bought, but luckily the barn owner took pity on me at that point and said he’d do it. He’s the best. Or he just doesn’t want me to break things. Probably both.
After the trailer TLC I took my CWD home so I could dye it. Doing a brown saddle was definitely a slightly different experience than the black dressage saddle, but I’m pretty thrilled with how it came out.
If anyone wants another step-by-step tutorial I can do a version 2.0 for a brown saddle but I kinda felt like I’ve exhausted this subject a bit already. If there’s enough interest I could be persuaded, so if you want more detailed info let me know.
On the way home from the barn on Saturday I stopped at Hobby Lobby to see if I could get ideas on what to use to bling my own spur straps. I LOVE the straps that came with my Signature Spurs so I don’t want to buy other ones, and I thought I could try my hand at DIYing these to make them fancier instead of paying $30 for someone else to do it. Luckily I stumbled upon exactly the right thing on a clearance rack, and for $3 I transformed plain into fancy. Plus they’re fully removeable if I ever want to just take them off.
On Sunday I was up early to drive out and watch Bobby in his first Training CT (he kicked ass, naturally) and then volunteer, but when I got home I finished the saddle. She’s so much prettier!
I wish I’d done this years ago, but I think I’m a little DIY’d out for a while.
breedrideevent.com 
LOL saddle looks great. Bobby needs to start a blog btw so we can follow him as well!
PS What is on the cantle of your saddle (pre-dying) did someone take a bite out of it? LOL
Glad the trailer is coming along!!
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I can’t even get him to write posts here, no way he’d write his own. As for the saddle – the seat was damaged when I bought it (which is how I got it so dirt cheap) but it’s purely aesthetic so it’s never bothered me at all!
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well it sure looks good now and i love the darker brown color too!
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I am too lazy to write a blog five days a week! It’s all I can muster to hose off my plastic tack!!
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The saddle came out incredible!
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If it’s not too much of a hassle, a DIY for the brown saddle would be awesome. 🙂 I have a friend with a Vega that’s a lovely shade of orange that she’s never been able to darken, but she’s wanted it dyed for a long while. No professionals in our area so we might end up having to tackle it ourselves! Could also contact you with my email or something if needbe, if you’d rather not make a whole post about it.
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You give hope to us all! We no longer have to look for things in the correct color, WOOO
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Like the saddle, love the spur straps! 😀
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I love anything diy…those spur straps are lookin killer, I don’t use them but if I did mine would be decked out in a similar fashion. You lucked up and got your blue color yay!
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They had tons of colors, I had to dig to find blue!
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I like the stirrup bling – very creative!
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i give you kudos for rubbing off on her Bobby 🙂 Who would have thunk Amanda would get so blingy in her old age 🙂
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Please, Bobby hates bling.
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HA HA HA he likes plastic i forgot 🙂
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I like bling – just not on me, or my horse.
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Would totally like another DIY post for this saddle! That is if it isn’t any trouble. There are no professionals in my area either.
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My only question (I guess it’s a follow up for both saddles, really) is: how careful do you have to be to strip and dye all the little nooks and crannies? Or is it a fairly forgiving process? I could see myself missing a spot and then going NUTS because there was a miscolored spot.
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The black one was easier as far as dye coverage. Granted, the brown one started out very unevenly covered and with pre-existing spots. Dyeing it helped even them out but they aren’t going to go away. The brown requires a bit of a more even application of dye in general, which I don’t think is particularly hard. The Tan-Kote requires a fairly even coating as well, it’s possible to leave streaks or clumps of the top finish if you just slap it on.
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I feel like I need a spoon. Such a beautiful chocolatey saddle now!
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Wow. What a productive weekend. I wish you lived closer. I would so pay you to dye my saddle. Love the spur straps!
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I am so impressed with your DIY skills. And the saddle looks amazing, like a completely different saddle! Nicely done- on all of it!
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Sheesh, I’m tired reading about your super busy weekend. How do you have the energy, drive and ambition to fit it all in?!
I adore the dye job on the saddle, such a rich colour ♡♡♡♡
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It’s more like I’m super ADD and end up doing 1000 things at once.
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I have the same problem, except that usually things only get half done or not done at all because I get too overwhelmed. The saddle looks really nice! And the spur straps are pretty nifty.
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Dang – great job on that saddle!
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i’m definitely thinking about giving my spur straps a go sometime soon now too…. so many options!
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I noticed at Walmart they had a crap ton of really cheap blingy earrings that you could totally cut the post off of and affix to some spur straps. That was going to be my backup plan.
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Those spur straps are awesome
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