He is DEFINITELY a keeper!

My significant other recently started a new job (ok not so recently, almost a month ago) and he's on shift work a few hours away. On one of his trips home, he stopped in a litttle town that is very well known for their antique shops. There's this one store that is just HUGE, 3 stories full of antiques of all sorts. And every once in awhile a little gem will pop up. He stopped in there, looked around for awhile and then asked the clerk if they happened to have anything related to sidesaddle riding.

And what do you know! The clerk says "Why yes actually! We just got this in the other day!" and pulls out this absolutely gorgeous ladies hunt whip.

Bamboo shaft, antler handle and an absolutely gorgeous engraved silver collar. What a find!

And being the good man he is, he brought it home for me!

Here's a close up of the handle & collar.

The other end was missing the waxed cord that's usually wound around to help secure the "snapper" (I can't think of the actual name for that little bit of leather on the end right now... duh!) and I was worried that it might come off if I ever tried to use it, even just for demo purposes. So I figured I'd stop by the local leather repair place and see what they could suggest. Turns out they had just what the doctor ordered. Though I'm wondering if I should have used a darker color?
Here's the end all fixed up.