I ordered some leather lace, so it’s in the hands of the US postal service. So no more halters until then.
I directed my attention elsewhere. I’ve been having good luck with model horse tack making so I decided to play with my english saddle pattern.  The flaps are always my biggest problem area. I see what the real saddle looks like, but having my hands and eyes coordinate enough to where it transfers well into paper can be the biggest struggle.
So I found my reference and drew it out before going through multiple paper prototypes.

Then I did a dummy leather attempt. It’s a saddle of many colors and leather type!
I did some more fixing after that point.

Today I decided to put a sorta fake but a fake with nicer leather saddle together. I left off stirrup leathers and dee rings, but I do like the flaps. SO MUCH.   I plan on switching my skirt pattern with another I already made. Instead of using thin metal for the tree I used a thicker sheet metal. I have to remember that the metal is thicker and it doesn’t need as much bulk added. The panels, well, I didn’t really wait long enough to glue them, haha.
But yes, here it is!