Friday, June 25, 2010

Assembly is reverse of disassembly

Anybody who's ever repaired (or attempted to repair) a car knows and hates those words. Chilton's, you're a bunch of jerks. Whenever I take my tack apart to clean it, I always end up with a pile of parts and a sort of vague memory of how disassembly was accomplished. So far I've always gotten it back together, but it's never easy.

Today was saddle cleaning day, in preparation for the Thing I Shall Not Name Lest I Jinx It. I soaped and oiled my saddle, replaced some hay string ties with pretty blue nylon cord, reburned the holes in the nylon stirrup leathers, and washed the cordura fenders... and the nylon latigos. The fenders and latigos were white and stiff with dried-on sweat, yuck.

It's been well over a year since I rerigged the saddle to also use the back girth rings - I remember standing in that barn in Ohio, ineffectually trying to figure out how to tie the knot from the wrong side. (If you ride with an English girth, none of this makes any sense, but if you ride with a western cinch, you know what I'm talking about.) Anyway, I was dreading the reassembly of the cinch, but it was pretty painless!

I did have the sense to quit while I was ahead. I didn't unbuckle the end of the breastcollar - I have never gotten a Conway buckle back together on the first try.

2 comments:

  1. i freaking hate conway buckles and swear i'll never buy another bridle with them again.

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  2. I'm not fond of Conways, either: not only awkward, but I think they're ugly. I actually figured out a way to replace them on one pair of reins with a regular roller buckle. Much more pleasant.

    Will it jinx the unnamed Thing to wish you good luck?

    wv="decepto"=The pile of disassembled tack was stirred about by the amazing decepto, to see how frustrated he could get you.

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