Saddle Breastplate: Rounded Side Straps, Neck Strap and Girth Strap on Covered Rings (Hasluck, Saddlery, 1904)

"Breastplates (Fig. 10) are made for hunting saddles to prevent them falling backwards, just as the crupper keeps them from advancing too far."

You need one 1-1/2 in covered ring, two 1 in covered rings, two 5/8 in covered buckles and one 1 in covered buckle.

Cut two side straps 7/8 in wide and 2 ft long when turned over the rings at each end. Round the top on the groove board, stuffing it with strands of soft cord. Stitch them along both sides very finely with silk cotton or linen thread, putting a 1 in ring at one end of each and both other ends into the 1-1/2 in ring. Polish the edges well after stitching.

Cut a 1-3/8 in strap to be 10 in long when bent over the rings at each end; shave the ends and prick the sides finely like the shoulder piece. Cut another piece 9-1/4 in long when bent for the rings, 7/8 in wide at both ends and widening gradually to 1-3/4 in in the centre. Put the chapes in the 1 in rings and stitch both pieces together.

Make two 5/8 in straps 2 ft long, one end prepared for the buckle, the other narrowed; edge, rub and crease them with a hot checker. Put one in each 1 in ring to within 3 in of the buckle. Double the 3 in length with the buckle on top and make two loops between the two leathers. Stitch from the ring along both sides to the buckle, fastening the loops at the same time. Finish the edges of the stitched part and make seven or eight holes in the points.

Cut a strap 1-1/4 in wide and 3 ft long. Narrow it to 1 in at 1 ft from the bend at the ring and turn it down for the 1 in buckle at the narrow end; edge, rub and crease it, then put the buckle in the reverse way. Cut eight or nine holes, beginning about 8 in from the buckle, and buckle the strap back on itself to make a loop for the girth (bellyband) to pass through.

Put the other end of the girth strap in the 1-1/2 in ring. Cut a safe to go under it, running up under the ring round the top part and down about 3-1/2 in below the bend, narrowing towards the end almost to the width of the strap. Crease the safe and place it under the chape and ring; stitch it down on both sides with a fancy stitch in the centre. Line the safe with chamois or very thin buff, stitched in all round, stuff a little flock through the opening at the bottom, and close the opening with fancy stitching such as an arrow point. He adds that it can be made of single leather without lining, only the bends being stitched.

The long side straps run down from the shoulder to the chest, and the short cross strap passes over the neck at the top. The two small straps buckle to the staples in front of the saddle, and the girth strap runs from the big ring under the belly between the forelegs to the girth.

From **Saddlery**, edited by Paul N. Hasluck, David McKay, 1904 (archive.org saddlery00hasl), chapter V, "Saddle Cruppers, Breastplates, and Other Accessories", breastplates, pp. 41-44, Fig. 10; every fraction was read on the scan. He says the cross strap is pricked "like the shoulder piece" without describing a shoulder piece; check the cross strap against Fig. 10. The crupper, martingale, girths, stirrup leathers and saddle cloths of the same chapter are not made here. The tools and metric figures are ours.