Hello A big welcome to the cute family. My daughter has horses,saddle cloths ect are quite thick,you may need a commercial machine. Your embroidery machine dealer should be able to head you in the right direction. I'm sure some of the more experienced cuties will be able to help you. Hope you drop in often to join us. *4U

A Big welcome to our cute site. About your question, kind of depends on what kind of money you are well to spend. Make sure you get one that has a large embro. hoop for the disigns that you will be doing. Good Luck! Brenda Lea

From the information I gathered before making the purchase of an embroidery machine, they are far too delicate and high precision to be able to cope with the more rugged demands of sewing through heavier projects.
For this reason I kept my 40 year old Elna Supermatic, which i have used to sew all these things as well as leather and webbing saddlery, handbags, shoes etc. It has never even needed so much as a new belt or light in the 40 years I have owned it. Back when I bought it, it was one of the most expensive machines you could buy and is still one of the most robust domestic sewing machines ever made.
I would suggest you look on Ebay to pick yourself up one of these, or, as previously suggested buy yourself an industrial straight sewer.
I don't think i could ever imagine doing this type of heavy work on an embroidery machine, with all the pushing and pulling it requires, an embroidery machine would be in the repair shop having it realigned every week. Best to keep your embroidery machine strictly for embroidery and less demanding projects.
hugs n roses, oh and a big welcome to the Cute family. Meganne

I cannot answer that question but a big welcome to you and a flower*

Domestic machines are too delicate to do that kind of embroidery. Commercial ones are, they even offer special hoops for that kind of project. But they are very expensive. And I agree with Meganne, I have the same Elna, bought 1963, that can handle heavy duty sewing, but predates the embroidery era.

As was said, a regular at-home 'combo' machine would not be able to handle the heavy work you need it to do. There is a middle ground though... I have a semi-pro, at-home 6 needle machine made by Babylock called a BMP6 that's pretty tough. It uses either DST or PES embroidery files, standard spools or cones of thread and standard bobbins (and it even threads it's own needles! lol) so it's easy to use. The newer model is a BMP8, the older machine is an EMP6 (older machines CAN be upgraded!). The hat hoop was included in the deal I got from my dealer too but it pays to shop around!!! Dealers set their prices and some will include the oh-so-expensive extras if they really want your business. My machine has on-screen tutorials and after spending just about an hour with the dealer brought mine home and have used it by myself ever since. It does not require a laptop to run as some pro-models do. You can use a link to a computer, it's on-board memory, a Babylock/Brother design card, a jump (usb) drive or an external cd-rom drive to load designs. The EMP does not have a port for USB jump drives though...instead it has a built in floppy drive I believe.

Brother makes a machine that looks almost identical (PR600) but the Babylock is built a bit heavier. They are as close to a 'pro-machine' as you will get without spending tens of thousands of dollars. BUT even a Tajima or Toyota 12 thread would be hard pushed to do the really heavy items like saddle pads and heavy rugs. I have very easily embroidered standard or light weight horse blankets and coats etc. but would be rather careful with any but the thinest pads. The problem you will face is hooping. You can hoop the stabilizer but the motion of the hoop will probaby cause the heavy pads to slip off. If someone will demo a new Babylock for you at a dealer and it looks like it will work then have the dealer help you find you a nice used BMP6. I bet you will be able to do that for a really reasonable price (new they are about the same price as a nice at home machine like a Janome 11000 and cheaper than a new hi-end Bernina!). I embroider kids, mens and womens denim coats and pants all the time and rarely have a problem. The only issue I have had with clothes was a 3XL Hoody that was made of super thick material that was just so big it did not want to fit in the hoop area lol. They do sell a new hoop just to accommodate those kinds of items now though.

The best choice if you must need a heavy duty pro-machine, and cannot afford one, is to either find an embroidery shop with heavy machines and contract with them to do your work, even if you are doing the specialty digitizing, or lease a machine. If you lease they generally do all the service and if the machine does not work well you are not stuck with it.... Just be sure before you buy anything they demo the machine using something of YOUR choosing. Dealers are not all created equal! ;) Buying from a dealer, even if it's used, is usually better than from an individual because you often get a warranty. I would insist that a machine is inspected by a Licensed service shop before you buy if it's from an individual selling a used machine. I would also be wary of buying any used machine I could not see first... like on eBay.

Good luck either way... My daughter used to ride hunter jumpers and dressage and I was asked on a regular basis to do work but I quickly realized that some things are just beyond the abilities of even semi-pro machines. The things I do embroider though bring me and the riders/owners a lot of joy. It is fun to specialize in something like horse sports!

If you need more info or if I can be of ANY help please click on my name and send me a message. I will do all I can to be of assistance!