Flock Stuffing

We were at the yard this morning when the saddle fitter turned up to measure up one of the other horses for a sale.  While there she also added more fill to another saddle.  It was fascinating to watch her at work; she uses a very soft wool flock for the stuffing, employing various tools to push the flock into the right position.

She also used something I haven't seen since school days; one of those flexible rulers was used, shaped over the horse's back to get a record of the curvature and ensure a good fit for the saddle.  She traced the result on to her saddle fitting form, an A3 form to allow enough space to draw the profile.

Earlier in the day I'd gone out before breakfast to see if there was any activity amongst the deer.  No roaring, no sign of the mature stags, the eldest I found was the follower seen in the extra.