Maggie's 3B

I was in a rock shop one day several years ago, and saw this wonderful opaque faceted ruby as a necklace with matching earrings, and immediately thought it would look wonderful in a saddle. I held onto them for years, thinking they would be perfect for my own mare's saddle - and when she was done being having babies I finally got around to building her saddle. I glued one of the matching earring stones onto her polished-bronze horn - if I like it and it looks like it might not hold, I'll make a hole in the horn cap and set it permanently.

The saddle has heavy cast aluminum stirrups because, even though they don't match the brass theme of the rest of the hardware, they are functional and comfortable for arena work. When we start doing more trail riding, I'll swap them out with some elegant wooden stirrups from Nettles or maybe some pretty brass-bound stirrups from Weber, with 4" treads for comfort and stability.

The saddle has 2" stirrup leathers for "swinginess", as we do very basic classical dressage in this saddle.

	Custom, handmade wood/rawhide tree from Rod Nikkel Seat length 15" 3-1/2" stock Polished bronze horn from Bork Foundry 5" Taylor cantle, 40 degrees and 1" dish 90 degree regular bars 5/8 single ring rigging All-leather ground seat Bronze hardware from Herb Bork Hermann Oak skirting, Big Horn latigo Cantle binding stitched with coad-waxed Irish linen Heavy cast aluminum barrel stirrups Weight fully loaded 25 lbs
	The cantle back has an inlaid ruby, and there's a matching small ruby glued onto the horn cap.