Discover our equestrian tack section
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Spend a day learning how to repair your equestrian equipment to improve safety, durability, and comfort for both horse and rider. Don't throw it away—repair it!
LIST OF MATERIALS AND TOOLS
- Latte / ruler
- Strap cutter
- Round-tip needles
- Brown braided nylon thread
- Lighter
- Cork stopper
- Diamond / prong awl
- Skiving knife
- Edge beveler
- Pricking iron (or a dry point compass if you don't have one)
- Pair of scissors
- Brush for gum arabic
- Dye applicator (felt in this case)
- Piece of old denim
- Hole punch pliers
- Wooden mallet
In this tutorial, the dyed vegetable-tanned leather backing is 5 mm thick. You can make your halter from 3–3.5 mm leather without any problems. Vegetable-tanned leather should be preferred.
1. SKIVING THE LEATHER - TECHNIQUE
- Skiving the leather thins the leather at each end to prevent excess thickness when several layers of leather are stacked. Skiving has a certain aesthetic purpose, but also prevents injury, and more specifically in this case, prevents a sharp edge from cutting the horse.
- Take a skiving knife and slide it diagonally from the inside out on the flesh side. If it is well sharpened, a single cutting motion is enough to skive your leather.
2. FINISHING THE EDGES - TECHNIQUE
Bevel the grain side of the leather as well as the flesh side. This rounds the corners so as not to injure your horse.
One exception: when the leather folds over itself, do not bevel the suede side of the leather. Otherwise, there will be a gap between the two layers, and dirt will get in.
Sand the edges, then apply the dye using a dye applicator (be careful to use a water-based dye and not an edge finish, otherwise the gum arabic will not be compatible).
Generously coat the edges, taking care not to overflow onto the already dyed leather.
Take a brush or dye applicator and generously coat the edges, taking care not to overflow onto the grain of the leather. Wait a few moments, change brushes, and apply the gum arabic.
Take a piece of old denim or a cloth and vigorously rub the edge of your leather. Work in small sections, as the goal is to heat the denim, which in turn heats the gum arabic, allowing it to properly penetrate the leather and give it a beautiful glossy finish. 
3. SEWING THE LEATHER - TECHNIQUE
You don't want a beautiful halter with crooked stitching, do you? Practice saddle stitching!
On a piece of leather, use your dry point compass or pricking iron to draw a sewing line. The pricking iron allows you to embed your stitching into the leather, thus avoiding friction on it; the compass only indicates "where to sew" and does not have this feature.
Then mark the stitch points with a marking wheel.
Place the leather pieces to be assembled in the saddle stitch pliers / sewing pliers. The sewing line must be visible but as close as possible to the pliers. Your thigh presses on the pliers, clamping everything between its jaws.
Thread a needle on each side of your thread: pass the end of the thread through the eye of the needle, fold the thread to the tip of the needle, and pierce the latter through the thread. Pull the needle so that it passes through completely. Do this on both sides of the thread.
Notes : the length of the thread should be at most the distance between your two outstretched arms. Taking a longer thread is absurd. It is completely normal to run out of thread when sewing large pieces. When this happens, go back 2 to 3 stitches with your thread and resume sewing from the last stitch toward you with your new thread.
For the first stitch:
Pierce two holes using a diamond awl. The stitching is done from your knees toward you.
Here is a diagram of the correct angle of the awl hole and the placement of the needles in a stitch hole.
Tip: Place a cork stopper under the leather where the awl will pierce it. This allows you to hold the leather properly and pierce straight without injuring yourself.
Pass the thread through hole A (see diagram) and arrange to have the same length of thread in both hands. 
With your left hand, pass the needle through hole B (from underneath the leather), toward you into the hole. With your right hand, insert the needle into the same hole (B), but this time as far away from you as possible in the hole. (See diagram)
Both needles must be inserted into the hole at the same time before pulling the thread.
Pull the needles. Be careful to have the same thread tension in your left hand and your right hand.
Tip: Push the thread with your thumbs to slide the needles, and not on the eye of the needles. This will prevent you from pricking yourself when the needles cross.
Go back, into hole A in the same way. The needles in the same direction. Your first stitch is done.
Move to stitch C and continue to the last stitch.
Stop stitch: pass the needles through the last stitch and go back always in the same way.
Cut both threads, leaving a few millimeters. 
Burn the ends of the threads with a lighter, then when the nylon has melted, flatten the threads.
You can see here that the melted and flattened thread will prevent the thread from coming undone. This is more aesthetic and takes up less space than a double knot.
Last step: hammer the stitching.
Get a riveting hammer or joiner hammer and strike your stitching. Be careful to strike it flat.
4. MAKING THE HALTER - TUTORIAL
Either prepare all the pieces before sewing, or prepare them one at a time. Here we will treat them one after the other for better understanding.
We will use the following terms:
LF = finished length of the leather piece, in centimeters
LC= cut length / leather length, in centimeters
The measurements used are "full size", however it is preferable to take your measurements on a halter at home, and adapt the measurements that follow.
The noseband and the sidepieces will be custom-made according to the pattern you have made according to your taste. In this case they were made from vinyl scraps, soft and easy to cut.
The throat latch, chin strap, chin piece, and 2 cheekpieces will be 25 mm wide. Consequently, you can cut a length of leather 25 mm wide. Depending on the size of your piece, a second one may be necessary. Know that you will need approximately 315 cm in length.
The stitch lines will be made 4 or 5 mm from the edge of the leather, according to your preference. Each sewn piece can be glued in advance with your neoprene glue (or any other glue that can glue leather). But this step is never mandatory.
5. MAKING THE NOSEBAND
This noseband will be doubled. Once the piece is cut, make a saddle stitch. Try to have a piece of saddle stitch +/- 1/3 of the width of your piece.
LF = 60 cm
LC = 60 cm + 60 cm + 1 cm for wrapping the ring = 121 cm of leather length by 25 mm width.
- Fold the leather in half to make the same saddle stitch on the other side of the noseband.
- Unfold
- Bevel the grain side (and not the flesh side, since the piece is doubled), dye it, and apply gum arabic.
- Draw the sewing line all around the edge.
- Fold the leather in half again, tap the fold with the mallet, and insert the ring into the fold.
If your leather is not of very good quality, remember to dampen the curve of the leather before folding it, to prevent the grain of the leather from cracking.
Sew, starting with the ring and following the sewing line.
6. THE NOSEBAND AND THE 2 SIDEPIECES
Get your noseband and sidepiece pattern, and transfer them to the leather piece using a fine steel awl, or simply a round awl.
Do not forget that the halter is composed of two sidepieces, so you must transfer it twice.
- Cut the 3 pieces following the line using your skiving knife. Be meticulous.
- Also cut a rectangle of 26 cm x 10 cm and 2 others of 14.5 cm x 6 cm
- Bevel the ends of the noseband, the ends of the sidepieces, as well as each end of the rectangles.
- Bevel the grain side on all pieces except the rectangular ones, dye them, rub gum arabic, and make your stitch lines
- Place the decorations on the noseband as well as on the sidepieces. If they are fold-over prongs like in this case, fold them toward the inside of the decoration.
- Insert the halter squares into the noseband and fold the two ends toward the inside.
- Take the largest rectangle and place it against the noseband.
It must reach as far as possible toward the squares. Is it too short? You will have to curve the noseband to sew, so the inside side is therefore smaller than the outside side (the visible face). If your rectangle is not short enough, you must shorten it without forgetting to skive the narrowed side again. This allows you to have a presentable halter, curved and not flat noseband.
We strongly advise you to glue at this step, it will greatly facilitate the sewing.
Sew from one square to the other following your line. Be careful not to insert your decorations into your pliers at the risk of damaging them.
Once the bottom and top of the noseband are assembled by sewing, cut the excess leather with a skiving knife.
Since the leather is quite soft for this, lay the noseband flat for the cuts.
This process allows you to have your curves at the back perfectly identical to those at the front, something impossible with a prior cut before sewing, there are always differences to rectify. The 2nd layer of leather at the back is mandatory for strength but also to avoid the friction of the horse's skin against the nails or rivets of the decorations put in place.
Bevel, sand, dye the edges then apply gum arabic.
Follow the same steps for the 2 sidepieces. Attention: however you must not curve them and therefore the rectangles must reach as close as possible to the halter squares!
7. THE THROAT LATCH
LF = 31
LC = 31 + 6 cm return + 1 cm to wrap the square = 38 cm.
Make a saddle stitch on one side, and skive the other end (flesh side).
Bevel both sides (except the flesh side on the 6 cm flap), dye it and apply gum arabic.
Draw the sewing line.
Pass the flap through the halter square and sew.
Make holes with the hole punch pliers as well as on the noseband.
8. THE CHEST STRAP
LF = 40 cm
LC = 40 + (2 x 6 cm return) + (2 x 1 cm to wrap the rings) = 54 cm
- Bevel both sides, finish the edges by beveling everywhere (except the flesh side of the two flaps), dye it and apply gum arabic. Do not forget the sewing lines.
- Pass each flap around the ring and sew.
Note: On the horse's left side (or even on both sides), you can add a snap hook that will attach to the ring. Subtract the size of the snap hook from the LC. If you choose this option, opt for a non-swiveling snap hook. Those with a swivel axis are much less sturdy.
9. THE TWO LOOP STRAPS
LF = 10 cm
LC = 30 cm
Make two.
The leather piece will be 6 mm wide and 2.4 cm long. (Hole in the shape of an oblong where the prong of your buckle will fit). These measurements may vary depending on your buckle.
- Skive both ends
- Finish the edges
- Mark the stitching line
- Sew one to the ring on the horse's left side to hold the headpiece, and the other to the halter square on the horse's left side to hold the throatpiece.
10. THE CHEEKPIECE
The LF of the cheekpiece should be the same finished length as the headpiece or 1 cm shorter. On this halter, we use a ring + triangle, so you must subtract its size from the LF.
LF = 18 cm (including the ring)
LC = 39 cm
Skive both flesh sides, finish the edges, mark the stitching lines, fold as shown in the photo, and sew.
END
If you haven't done it as you went along, you can now burnish your seams... 
YOU MIGHT BE INTERESTED IN THIS TUTORIAL!
Maxime from Deco Cuir explains how to make a frontal with a salmon leather insert and a noseband!
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2 comments
Anonymous
Bonjour Cylène,
Merci encore pour votre tutoriel, il est top !
L’équipe Deco Cuir
Cylène
Bonjour, je suis ravie de voir que mon tutoriel est toujours en ligne, et a été utilisé avec succès!
Belles réalisations bravo !