Martingale: Neck Strap and Slit Breast Strap With Rings (Hasluck, Saddlery, 1904)

"Martingales (Fig. 11) are made with straps round the neck, either flat or round, and with or without a buckle; the total length is about 4 ft. 6 in., and the flat strap is 3/4 in. wide."

Cut the neck strap about 4 ft 6 in long and 3/4 in wide. With a buckle: place a piece of leather about 1 ft 3 in from the buckle for the breast strap and stitch it at both ends, so it makes an opening. Round the rest of the neck strap, leaving about 1 ft flat for a 3/4 in buckle. Without a buckle, make the opening by simply overlapping the ends, leaving enough space between the two splices for the breast strap.

Cut the breast strap 1-1/4 in wide and 4 ft long and slit it for 1 ft 1 in. It may be flat or round; a round one must be cut wider to begin with, say 1-5/8 in, and then slit in half.

For a flat strap, narrow it at the unslit end for 1 ft 6 in from the end. Fix a 1 in buckle there the reverse way and buckle the strap back on itself to form a loop for the girth. Fit this buckle before the rings.

Put a ring on the end of each slit branch, as in Fig. 11; he does not give the ring size. Then run the buckle end of the breast strap through the opening in the neck strap, and the martingale is complete.

From **Saddlery**, edited by Paul N. Hasluck, David McKay, 1904 (archive.org saddlery00hasl), chapter V, martingales, pp. 45-47, Fig. 11 on p. 43; every fraction was read on the scan. He names the rings but gives no size for them, and does not say how they are fixed to the branches: follow Fig. 11. The combined martingale and breastplate on p. 45 is not made here. The thread, tools and metric figures are ours.