Custom Stock Pins

If you show an English discipline, then you've experienced the pain of stock pins. Yes, the attention is in the details and they give a nice appearance. However I've found that there is an utter lack of variety. The cheapest I've found are a few dollars and with those, you really get what you pay for. My favorite is one I bought in a tack store several years ago, which is silver with a blue and white sparkly horseshoe on it that probably cost me $20-$30. I know that's a little pricey but I really wanted something different from the standard gold horseshoe, bit, horse head, or horn that you usually see.
It hit me today as I was planning future blog posts that a stock pin was something I could probably make myself fairly easily. The benefit of this being that I could make them as personal or unique as I wanted and I could use quality materials like sterling silver if I wanted.

To make your own stock pin you'll need:

1. large safety pin or kilt/skirt pin like this one from amazon (be careful with sizing, the pins are the right style but vary greatly in size and quality - do your research)
2. your choice of charm, bead or whatever
3. Soldering iron and solder or super glue, depending of materials your working with

If using a charm you'll also need some sort of nippers or cutters that will cut off the loop that would be used to hang the charm. You may need to file away any rough edges after cutting.

Center your charm on the pin and either solder or glue in place... That's it. You should now have a beautiful and best of all unique stock pin to set you apart in the show ring. Keep in mind though that for some shows, it is best to stick to traditional designs. 

I like the idea of using charms because they're about the right size and the choices are endless. I would probably do a sparkly horseshoe or the first letter of your name for a classy look. 

Example of Horseshoe charm and Initial charm

I'll add pictures as soon as I make one!