Saddle Crupper: Slit Body, Buckled Billet and Paper-Cored Dock (Hasluck, Saddlery, 1904)

"Full-sized saddle cruppers (Fig. 9), which are used to prevent the saddle from advancing too much, are made about 1 in. wide, and sometimes a little more."

Cut the body about 1 in wide (or a little more) and about 1 ft 6 in long. Slit one end for about 5 in and turn the other end in for a 7/8 in buckle. Shave the points of the slits and the end of the chape.

Cut a billet as wide as the buckle and 2 ft 4 in long; trim one end for the buckle and shave the other. Edge both pieces, polish the edges and crease them with a hot checker. Put on the buckle and stitch the billet: the first stitch by the buckle goes over the edge and through chape and billet together, the next through the loop. Run four or five stitches towards the point on each side, and come back to the buckle on the other side, making the last stitch over the side the same as the opposite side.

Put a loop on the flat lower down the body, about 6 in from the buckle, stitching it across at each end.

The dock is much smaller round than a gig crupper dock. Take a piece of string about 1 ft long and roll wet brown paper round it until it is the thickness you need in the middle; thin the ends by cutting the paper before damping it.

Cut the dock leather about 1 ft 1 in long; it must be soft and pliable, so damp it before stitching. Stitch it over the core as it is, without cutting a groove, drawing it very tightly over the paper. Dry the dock and finish it in shape.

Stitch the dock to the slits with a splice of about 1-1/4 in. Put about a dozen holes in the billet, and vary the lengths to suit the size of horse.

From **Saddlery**, edited by Paul N. Hasluck, David McKay, 1904 (archive.org saddlery00hasl), chapter V, "Saddle Cruppers, Breastplates, and Other Accessories", saddle cruppers, pp. 40-41, Fig. 9; every fraction was read on the scan. He does not say how the billet fastens to the saddle; check against Fig. 9 and your saddle. The thread, tools and metric figures are ours.