Rusty Gets His New Tack!

In an earlier post, I talked about going to Water Hole Custom Leather and ordering a set of tack from Buck. When I ordered it, he said he wouldn't be able to start on it until after Thanksgiving because he had a lot of stuff to do before then. That was no problem for me as I wanted the new tack in time for the Winter Flea and that wasn't until January.

All the same, I was like a child on Christmas Eve waiting and fantasizing about my new tack. I haven't been able to post about it up to now because I had kept a few of the details a secret from Mistress. It was one last chance to control something before I gave her my reins for good and I was going to have fun with it.

I ordered the tack in mahogany with dark green edging. These are the colors of Aphrodite's Meadow - Mistress' stable. They happen to be favorites of mine as well. I once had an apartment that was done almost entirely in brown and green. I chose these because I wanted no doubt in anyone's mind whose pony I am. So there.

Because Buck would be hand dyeing the tack, other possibilities presented themselves that don't normally with black leather. Buck suggested graphics that could be tooled into the belt, gauntlets and hoof leggings and I got to work on that as soon as I got home. I had chosen my name, a five-pointed star, myrtle leaves and roses for the design. Roses and myrtle are sacred to Aphrodite, so that created another connection.

In early December I sent Buck a note reviewing the order and telling him to go ahead with it. Only a couple weeks later I found him on Yahoo Messenger and asked how he was doing. It turned out that the tack was just about finished and we scheduled a date between Christmas and New Year's to get together and make final adjustments.

I made arrangements with friends to stay the night at their place near Hartford. That is a story in itself but I won't go into it here. Suffice to say I was on my way to Tolland early the next day. With the exception of a wrong turn in Hartford (another story - and a Prozac moment to be sure), things went smoothly and I got to Water Hole on time.

Buck was pretty busy, but he's never too busy to spend time with a client. He picked up a big box behind the counter and ushered me into the back room. Once there, he laid the tack out on a table.

There it was. Everything I had hoped for and more. The mahogany was beautiful and rich, the dark green was exactly what I had envisioned, the tooling was incredible - even improving on the design I had sent, the brass hardware was incredible and the leather made the most wonderful sound. And that's to say nothing of that heady scent of new leather. Wow.

I wasted no time stripping down to my dance belt and Buck put the tack on me for the very first time, checking for fit and making adjustments where necessary. Little had to be done, and that was anticipated. I spent some time learning how to make the hooves work well and how to swish my tail.

I was so taken by it all that I immediately ordered a set of hobbles. To my pleasant surprise, he finished them in short order and got them to me via the Stormy express (Stormy delivered them at the Winter Flea in Providence - more on that in the next post).

So now I have tack and attitude! For anyone who is interested, I can't recommend Water Hole Custom Leather highly enough. The link can be found in my Ponyplay 101 post below.