Do It Yourself: How to Make Breeching Padding

Olivia   July 6, 2015   Comments Off on Do It Yourself: How to Make Breeching Padding
Do It Yourself Horse Ownership -- How to make breeching or britching padding

How to make fleece breeching padding for your mule breeching. This would also work for harness breeching.

1. Measure your breeching. Mine is 42″ long and about 3″ wide.
2. You’ll need 1″ thick memory foam, a yard of fleece in your chosen color, and a small bit of scrap fabric (color is irrelevant), thread, pins, sewing machine, tape measurer.
3. I bought remnant foam so I cut 2 pieces 22″ by 4″ wide. You may be able to purchase a solid piece in your full length. You want an extra inch in width and 2 extra inches total in length.

Do It Yourself Horse Ownership -- How to make breeching or britching padding

4. Cut your fleece fabric to be your foam’s width x2+1″. So mine was 9″ wide. Length should be length of the foam + 2″. Again, mine was 46″ long.
5. Fold in half lengthwise and pin.

Do It Yourself Horse Ownership -- How to make breeching or britching padding
 

6. Sew the whole edge lengthwise. Keep your edge small. You don’t need more than 1/4″ of fabric past your stitching.

 

Do It Yourself Horse Ownership -- How to make breeching or britching padding

7. I used a zigzag stitch to add some extra strength to the closure.

Do It Yourself Horse Ownership -- How to make breeching or britching padding

8. Sew one side closed using the same stitching method.
9. Insert your hand and arm all the way through from the other end and grab the sewn-shut end.

Do It Yourself Horse Ownership -- How to make breeching or britching padding

10. Start pulling the edge inside an inch or two to make a pouch.

Do It Yourself Horse Ownership -- How to make breeching or britching padding

11. Insert one of your foam pieces into this pouch and grab onto it with the hand inside the fabric.

Do It Yourself Horse Ownership -- How to make breeching or britching padding

12. Slowly work the fabric onto the foam. It should be very tight and hard to do. This will keep the fabric from shifting.

Do It Yourself Horse Ownership -- How to make breeching or britching padding

13.You want to make sure your seam is lined up along the edge of the foam and not in the middle where it might rub your horse/mule.
14. As you get close to the end of the foam piece, Scoot the rest of the fabric onto the foam, but don’t pull it past your foam piece. Now both your hands are free.

 

Do It Yourself Horse Ownership -- How to make breeching or britching padding

The following steps only apply if you have two pieces of foam. If you have only one piece, skip to step 20.
15. Take your small piece of scrap fabric and wrap it around the edge of foam sticking out.

Do It Yourself Horse Ownership -- How to make breeching or britching padding

16. Sew the fabric to the foam. Don’t worry about the extra fabric, you can cut it off later.

Do It Yourself Horse Ownership -- How to make breeching or britching padding

17. Fold the scrap fabric back.

Do It Yourself Horse Ownership -- How to make breeching or britching padding

18.  Insert your second piece of foam up tight against the first piece and unfold the fabric.

Do It Yourself Horse Ownership -- How to make breeching or britching padding

19.  Sew the second piece to the scrap fabric. Now your foam pieces are connected. Cut off the extra fabric.

Do It Yourself Horse Ownership -- How to make breeching or britching padding

20. Finish unrolling your fleece over the second foam piece until the entire fleece is right-side-out.

Do It Yourself Horse Ownership -- How to make breeching or britching padding

21. Sew your final edge shut by hand so that the seam is tucked inside and the extra fabric isn’t visible.
22. Lay your breeching out on a large flat surface. My table was occupied by the sewing machine, so I used the floor.
23. Use a pin to mark where you are going to attach your velcro.

Do It Yourself Horse Ownership -- How to make breeching or britching padding

24. You want to attach the velcro on the inside of each joint so that the fabric won’t shift. Two on each side and one in the middle (no joint at this 5th location).

Do It Yourself Horse Ownership -- How to make breeching or britching padding

25. You’ll need 5 pairs of 6″ velcro. Pin each piece on where you placed your pin marker. Make sure the pieces are set up to attach to each other when wrapped around your breeching.

Do It Yourself Horse Ownership -- How to make breeching or britching padding

26. Sew each piece of velcro to the edge of the padding. Connect the velcro in the middle. Do this 4 more times.

 

Do It Yourself Horse Ownership -- How to make breeching or britching padding
27. Place the padding inside your breeching again and attach the velcro.
Do It Yourself Horse Ownership -- How to make breeching or britching padding
28. And you’re done! Admire your finished product:
Do It Yourself Horse Ownership -- How to make breeching or britching padding

Here’s what it looks like on Nilla:

Do It Yourself Horse Ownership -- How to make breeching or britching padding

I originally only did four velcro straps (I didn’t want one in the middle since it would get manure on it). However, the middle started sagging. It doesn’t touch her at this part, so it’s entirely a cosmetic issue, but a 5th velcro will solve this problem.