Western Horseman

BONNET: How One Good Mare Anchors a Ranch Family

WORKING

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FEATURES

VOLUME 83 / NUMBER 5

MAY 2018

52 West Texas Treasure

Fifty years ago, Billy Klapper quit working as a cowboy and became a full-time craftsman. Since then, his bits and spurs have become some of the most collectible gear in the West, but that was never his intention.

By ROSS HECOX

64 Rein Makers

Split reins seem simple, but a lot goes into crafting a quality pair. Learn how they’re made and how to select the right ones for you.

By SUSAN MORRISON

72 The Rap on Taps

More than an ornate accessory, tapaderos can enhance your safety, protect you in the saddle, and even improve efficiency when working cattle.

By JENNIFER DENISON

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Mare of the Tom Miner Basin

Follow one good ranch mare for a snapshot of life on the Anderson Ranch in southwestern Montana.

LOUISE JOHNS

By LOUISE JOHNS

M AY 2018

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CONTENTS 14

20

22

RIDE WEST Martin Black redirects a horse herd that was headed in the wrong direction at his Idaho ranch.

14 Ranch Horses

Pidcock/Coates Quarter Horses in Washington focuses on quality and solid horsemanship practices to preserve their brand’s legacy.

18 Women of the West

Bonnie Beauchamp-Cooke is a Georgia horsewoman who makes her living with cattle and art.

20 Classic Cowboys

22 Backcountry

As you plan pack trips or trail rides, keep courtesy in mind.

26 Health

36 Rodeo

Saddle bronc riders love to draw Wound Up for big bucks and big scores.

Warmer temperatures and green grass mean more pasture time, but safe transition to spring turnout is essential for horses.

40 Young Horsemen

28 Horsemanship

42 Western Art

Set yourself up for success by confidently conquering show-pen challenges with these tips from judge, coach and exhibitor Marilyn Peters.

Montana cowboy Bill Blankenship 34 Arenas has spent his life horseback, including A new organization seeks to unite 43 years as a brand inspector. regional stock horse groups.

Tricia Tillman knew early in her young life that she wanted to be a professional trainer.

46 Gear Talk

Tom Balding collaborates with top horsemen to come up with unique, functional designs for bits and spurs.

48 Cowboy Tastes

Out West Dutch Baby with Mixed Berries is a fun spin on classic pancakes.

Missouri pencil artist Robyn Cook likes to get to know her subjects’ characters and personalities.

50 Products

44 What’s It Worth?

IN EVERY ISSUE

An early 1900s beaded moosehide jacket has stayed in the family for many years.

Select the right honda for your rope from a variety of choices.

8 Leading Off 10 Feedback 110 Backward Glance 112 Baxter Black

ON THE COVER: Bits made by Billy Klapper have become collectibles, but are most effective when used on horses like this 3-year-old cutting mare trained by Shannon Hall of Oklahoma. Read more on page 52. Photograph by Ross Hecox.

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CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: KATIE FRANK; JENNIFER DENISON; KATE BRADLEY BYARS

12 Opening Shot

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Your Partner in Horse Care™

nline May

westernhorseman.com MAINTAIN YOUR REINS

Publisher: Ernie King Editor in Chief: Ross Hecox Editor: Christine Hamilton Managing Editor: Susan Morrison Senior Editor: Jennifer Denison Digital Editor: Katie Frank Editor at Large: Ryan T. Bell Contributing Editor: Kate Bradley Byars Art Director: Ron Bonge Fort Worth Production Manager: Sherry Brown Production Assistant: Emily Trupiano Director of Production: Karen Fralick Production Service Manager: Cher Wheeler Digital Imaging Manager: Erik Lewis Senior Digital Strategist: Sonny Williams Marketing Manager: Lizzie Iwersen Brand Manager: Megan Thomas Business Manager: Tonya Ward Ambassador-at-Large: Butch Morgan Warehouse Manager: Tim Gelnaw

Reins serve as both your brakes and steering wheel when you ride, but many people take them for granted.

Dennis Moreland, who has been making tack for more than 40 years, explains that it’s important to check them over before every ride, and hang them properly to help preserve them and extend their usefulness.

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TOOLS OF THE TRADE: Billy

Klapper shares his approach to making bits and spurs for more than 50 years.

CULTURE: Learn how a West

Texas craftsman and cowboy alleviates joint pain when riding with tapaderos.

Feed Manufacturers, Auto Aftermarket, Tractors, Farm & Ranch Equipment, Buildings & Barns, UTV/ATV rayanne.engel@westernhorseman.com 209-759-3395 Senior Account Manager: Kami Peterson: Western Apparel & Boots, Breed Associations, Equine Events & Rodeos, Western Lifestyle Events, Retail Stores, Food kami.peterson@westernhorseman.com 719-651-3394 Bobbie Cook: Horse Health, Breeders & Ranches, Horse Sales, Insurance, Education, Horse Expos, Grooming, Fencing bobbie.cook@westernhorseman.com 817-569-7161 Jenn Sanders: Trailers, Supplements, Western Clinicians, Trailer Aftermarket, Real Estate, Automotive, Packing & Camping, Dude Ranches, Horse Health jennifer.sanders@westernhorseman.com 940-627-3399 Kathryn Barkey: Art & Museums, Travel & Destinations kathryn.barkey@cowboypublishing.com 970-554-2032

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VOLUME 83 / NUMBER 5 Western Horseman (ISSN 0043-3837) is published monthly by MCC Magazines, LLC, 735 Broad St, Augusta, GA 30901. Subscription rate is $24 for one year, $46 for two years. Canadian subscriptions add $20 per year (U.S. funds only). All other foreign subscriptions add $40 per year (U.S. funds only). Editorial and Advertising Main Offices: 2112 Montgomery St., Fort Worth, TX 76107. Periodicals Postage paid at Augusta, GA, and additional offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Western Horseman, PO Box 433237, Palm Coast, FL 32143-9616.

Submission of freelance articles and photographs is welcomed. For complete editorial guidelines go to westernhorseman. com or email edit@westernhorseman.com. No faxed materials accepted. Articles that appear in Western Horseman do not necessarily reflect the position or opinion of Western Horseman or MCC Magazines, LLC. Western Horseman does not endorse and is not responsible for the contents of any advertisement in this publication. No material from Western Horseman can be copied, faxed, electronically transmitted, or otherwise used without express written permission.

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W E STER N H O R SEM A N

M AY 2 01 8

Meet our newest Ambassador

Kelly Tovar

Doing what’s right for the horse.

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LEADING OFF

Small Stuff Billy Klapper’s hammer, with its wire-wrapped handle, rests on his anvil.

noticed a crack in his hammer’s handle, he repaired it by tightly wrapping wire around the fractured area, just below the hammer’s head. When someone asks why he doesn’t just buy a new handle, he replies, “I’ve gotten used to the weight of this hammer with the wire around the handle.”

There’s no telling how many hundreds of bits and spurs Klapper has pounded out with his go-to tool. I can understand his reluctance to replace it and disrupt the feel and rhythm of his work. In the article “West Texas Treasure,” beginning on page 52, accomplished horsemen and cowboys try to describe how Klapper gear has just the right effect on their horses, and I’m sure they would be in favor of the 81-year-old craftsman continuing to

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employ the same methods and tools he has long used in his shop in Pampa, Texas. Laboring next to a forge and anvil with sweat dripping from his brow, Klapper has been fashioning some of the most sought-after bits and spurs in the Western horse industry for 50 years.

Craftsmen like Klapper recognize that the tiniest details on tack and equipment can affect feel, timing and balance. On page 64, three makers of split reins discuss the intricacies of their vocation. The quality of the hide and process of cutting and conditioning reins contributes to how they drape, move and communicate the rider’s signals to the horse. Even rounding their edges ever so slightly makes a big difference in how they feel in a rider’s hands.

Building tapaderos also requires close attention to detail. On page 72, makers discuss the styles and

functionality of essential gear that protects cowboys’ feet and helps them do their jobs. One saddlemaker explains how a minor imbalance can cause tapaderos to hang improperly, while another craftsman observes how seasoned cowboys know how to direct cattle with a slight move of their “toe fender.”

Whoever said, “don’t sweat the small stuff ” probably wasn’t a craftsman or horseman. Both groups seem to understand how an eighth of an inch in

W ESTER N HO R SEM A N

a bit’s mouthpiece can make a mile of difference in how a horse responds.

They know that a perfectly timed application of pressure pays huge dividends down the road.

And they agree that having the right feel—as impossible as it is to define— separates the masters from the also-rans.

So if a wire-wrapped handle helps a man swing his hammer more precisely, there’s no need to make a run to the local hardware store.

—ROSS HECOX, editor in chief

Check out a gallery of photos by Ross Hecox at westernhorseman.com.

ROSS HECOX PHOTOS

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HEN BILLY KLAPPER

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FEEDBACK

Positive Results

I enjoyed the article you did on Angola Prison, “Outside the Fence,” [March]. I was raised up in the cutting horse industry, and working on ranches. I understand that those prisoners and I probably have very different backgrounds, and it’s rare to see a person who started riding much after their 18th birthday that really moves well with a horse.

But the last paragraph of that article is what really got me: “…They’re living, breathing animals that have a soul. And they love them, baby them and take care of them. That’s their joy.…”

That’s why children can get along with so many horses that adults can’t. They love the horse because it’s a horse. But then that child eventually gets to be a teenager and realizes that he or she can make that horse do things by using a certain bit or curb strap or a pair of spurs etc., and then it becomes a numbers game, and the “horse trader” is born.

All horses understand when and if their rider is in it for their own personal glory or if they actually care about the horse. If it’s for the horse, then all seemingly senseless gymnastic exercises will be endured or tolerated for reasons not known to the horse, but it becomes evident in competition, or in having a better-balanced ranch horse. And hence, the “horseman” is born.

—JOHN MCCOMBER, Wyoming

AS A CURRENT INMATE in an Arizona State Penitentiary in Florence, Arizona, I am thankful to be allowed to have a Western Horseman subscription. The story on the Louisiana State Penitentiary titled “Outside the Fence” was much appreciated.

Being raised on a cotton farm in southern Arizona, my roots run deep in horses, cattle and agriculture. I dearly miss my freedom, but after reading the March issue I found a smile on my face. My hat’s off to the state of Louisiana and the Louisiana State Penitentiary for continuing such an awesome program. Even though many in the public may see us as prisoners undeserving of any benefit, many such cowboys as myself will always long for a horse’s company, a squeaky saddle and a rope. I hope in time other state prison systems will see the importance and positive effects this type of program has, not only for the inmate but for the state as well.

—BRIAN HANOCK, Arizona

Art from Readers

I just had a chance to read the article “The Buffalo Soldiers Ride Again” [February] and I thought I’d let you know how much I enjoyed it. I live just north of Fort Sill, Oklahoma, where the Buffalo Soldier story is well known. I did this painting many years ago for the kneeling gentleman.

—CHARLOTTE CHANDLER-MYERS, Oklahoma

1. Tour the town of Tombstone, Arizona, with daily re-enactments of the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral and other historic landmarks and buildings as they were in the 1880s.

2. Attend the Lone Pine Film Festival in Lone Pine, California, a week-long celebration of the old Westerns that were filmed in the nearby Alabama Hills, such as [those featuring] the Lone Ranger, Roy Rogers, Hopalong Cassidy and others. Many older celebrities are often spotted.

3. Stay during Cody Stampede Week in Cody, Wyoming, which culminates with a two-day parade in Cody on July 3 and 4. [See] a lot of Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association rodeo action all week at the Cody Nite Rodeo grounds on the edge of town. Enjoy meals at the famous Irma Hotel on 12th Street where evening “gunfights” take place in the street.

—JIM MURPHY, Wyoming

Pack Your Bags

I REALLY ENJOYED your “Go West” article in the February issue.

We have been to some of those events mentioned and had great times. Here are some that we would add:

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From Our Instagram Followers

Western Horseman welcomes feedback from readers.To submit a letter for Feedback, email edit@westernhorseman.com.

M AY 2 01 8

RIDE WEST

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W E STER N H O R SEM A N

M AY 2 01 8

OPENING SHOT

Keeping Up WHEN THE HORSE HERD STARTED TO HEAD in the wrong direction at Martin Black’s Y6 ranch in Bruneau, Idaho, photographer Kim Stone says the horseman and clinician stayed calm and cool as he rode out and guided them back.

It’s no surprise, considering Black comes from a family with five generations’ worth of experience raising and training horses. When he was younger and began to ride horses for the public, Black says, he started as many as 500 head a year. Although his clinics and “ranch schools,” which teach the basic elements of stockmanship, horsemanship and roping, have been successful, the trainer still tries to start 200 colts a year to keep his program and horse-handling skills fresh.

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RIDE WEST

ABOVE: Jim and Lola “Gay” Coates have been breeding Quarter Horses for more than 30 years.

LEFT: Pidcock/Coates Ranch in Prosser, Washington, breeds for “big hips and pretty faces.”

Pidcock/Coates brand and continuing to breed quality horses.

FROM BREYERS TO BUYERS

RANCH HORSES

Making Pretty Work This Washington State-based ranch has expanded into Big Sky Country to continue raising good-looking using horses Story and photography by KATIE FRANK

L

OLA “GAY” COATES SAYS she can’t get enough of that classic horse smell. It’s the one that lingers on your hands after rubbing a horse’s hide and brings a familiar sense of comfort. She’s lived and breathed horses since she was a little girl growing up near Kennewick, Washington, a short distance north of the Columbia River.

“I’m doing exactly what I had in mind since I was a little kid,” says Gay, who

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now lives in Prosser, Washington, with her husband, Jim. “I would play with Breyer horses, and said when I grew up I would have a broodmare band of 36 mares. Now why I ever picked that number, I don’t know.”

Eventually, her family’s breeding operation would hit that number with the help of family and “wonderful clients.”

She has since found the sweet spot in terms of herd size for her property, but that hasn’t stopped her from growing the

W ESTER N H O R SEM A N

Gay was raised by her father, Dick Pidcock, after her mother passed away when Gay was 12 years old. At about the same time, Dick moved the family from the Coffin Ranch, which at the time was the largest cattle ranch in the county, to town. He bought property across from the high school his children would eventually attend, and built a grocery store and gas station.

“He was always a cowboy, though, and he’d shoe horses in the back of the gas station. He had a special bay designated just for that,” says Gay. “Out of the five kids, I was the horsey one. When he needed help with the horses, I’d go because it’d get me out of school. Back when he ran the ranch, I’d say I had strep throat so I didn’t have to go to school, and then I’d get on one of the horses and I’d hightail it out and find him.”

The breeding program started in the mid-1980s when Gay—by then in her mid-30s—and her dad decided to start raising more than just the occasional ranch horse.

“My dad had a good eye for horses,” she says. “We wanted a horse with a deep heartgirth, a short back so it could gather

M AY 2 01 8

itself, big hindquarters for power, and good bone. Producing pretty heads was just the fun part. Foundation horses aren’t typically known for their pretty heads.”

Up until that point, Gay had kept a few personal mares bred to local stallions.

With the business starting up, Dick suggested they buy a stallion.

“It was getting expensive and hard to find suitable stallions,” she says, so she started asking horse people in the area for leads on a stallion prospect.

“I heard that a local gal had a Zip It Up yearling, so I went to look at him,” she recalls. “Afterward, I got back on my horse and rode the three miles home and told Daddy he had to go see that horse.

We hadn’t even decided what we could afford. But it didn’t make any difference how he was bred, because he knew he liked that colt once he saw him. It took him about eight minutes [to decide to buy him]. He didn’t even get off his horse.

We looked at each other, and he rode off.”

That first stallion was Condons Zippo Parbar, a 1986 chestnut by Zip It Up and out of a Pars Gold Bar mare named Condons Honey Babe. His conformation made him ideal for the new program, and it was devastating when he unexpectedly passed away a few years later.

From his limited get was a 1992 bay colt that wound up becoming his sire’s replacement. Zips Par Bar, affectionately

known as “Boots,” was out of the Pidcocks’ mare Sweet Honeymoon, who was by a popular local stallion named Black Bud, a powerhouse also known for his good mind and kind eye.

“Black Bud was coal black and foundation-bred with some running blood in there,” says Gay. “He goes back to a horse named Dexter, which is an old line of working cow horses [and grandsire of legendary cutting horse Cutter Bill]. We bred our mares to him for three or four years. Most of our horses’ dispositions come from him.”

A couple of years after starting Pidcock Quarter Horses, Gay was still working at a hair salon in town, which is where she met Jim Coates.

“I think her and her dad decided they needed someone to dig postholes and who didn’t know enough about horses to argue with them,” jokes Jim. The ranch focuses on foundation bloodlines such as Poco Bueno, Peter McCue, Sugar Bars and Leo to produce athletic horses used on ranches and in stock horse competitions. They stand two stallions and have about 14 mares.

No More Tequila (by Zips Par Bar and out of Par Dun Mia by Wyammy Tio Doc) is a 1997 red dun stallion known for siring athletic colts with sweet dispositions. Billy Harland (by Tee J Hooker and out of a Red Roany Bear mare) is a 1995

gray that traces back to Jackie Bee and King Fritz bloodlines.

BEST BREEDING PRACTICES Jim says Gay is the brain behind the operation. She is in charge of breeding decisions, while he handles the stallions, which are mostly hand-bred to mares that are Scotch-hobbled to prevent kicking. The breeding routine is regimented, and for good reason.

“It’s a matter of pattern for the stud,” Jim says, and explains that safe handling techniques must become habit so the stallion knows what is expected of him and what behavior is and isn’t tolerated.

“I don’t allow the stud to nicker or do any talking to the mare, until I give the okay. I do it exactly the same every time.

They really want to talk to the mare, especially their first year. But I’m in control. Only when I say ‘okay,’ does he do what he needs to do.”

Jim uses two lead ropes when he handles a stallion during breeding. One is connected to the halter, and the other is attached to a stud chain laced through the halter’s noseband. Each lead is made of a different material so that he can feel the difference without looking. He says he uses the regular lead rope to guide the stallion, and reserves the stud chain for control.

A band of about 14 broodmares is kept at the ranch in Washington.

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W ESTER N HO R SEM A N

15

Early on the Coates wanted to know the “why and how� behind breeding, which led Gay, Jim and their daughter, Frankie, to enroll in an equine reproduction class through Oregon State University’s agricultural extension office.

Understanding the science behind reproduction improved their breeding management practices, and knowing when to time breedings improved conception rates.

NORTHERN EXPOSURE Up until a couple of years ago, the Coates would rarely keep horses past 3 years old, to avoid having to train them, simply for lack of time. “Our horses go to people who go work or trail ride, but want to be proud of what they’re on and still turn heads,� says Gay. But selling most of their horses every year didn’t leave many stallion replacement options. “A lot of the times I’ll hide my stud prospects! People will snatch them up!�

laughs Gay. “Jim doesn’t know about them because I don’t brag about them!� “She won’t tell me because I say, ‘We’re in the horse-selling business, Gay, not the horse-keeping business!’ � Jim counters.

Still, the two knew they needed to start investing in the future of their brand, though they were unsure how.

The answer became clear a few years ago when a young man named Luke Cummings came from Montana to look at a 2-year-old palomino colt named Yellow Bird Harland. He admired what the Coates were producing and their use of foundation bloodlines. He made an offer on the palomino, but walked away with more than a horse.

Cummings and his wife, Chelsea, now operate what is called the Northern Division of Pidcock/Coates Quarter Horses in Columbia Falls, Montana. He manages and starts their colts, using them on his family’s cattle operation to rope, brand and doctor.

He keeps several mares and stands

Patron Dun It (by No More Tequila and out of a Hollywood Dun It mare).

Yellow Bird Harland is being offered as a gelding at the Pendleton Cattle Barons Weekend sale this May. “You don’t have to say much about their horses. They speak for themselves,� says Cummings. “I just want to carry on what they’ve created over the last 30 years. When someone rides up on a Pidcock horse, it’s like ‘Wow, where’d you get that horse?’ �

Once colts from the Northern Division are weaned, Cummings will haul them to Washington where they’ll winter. Jim and Gay will handle the yearlings, then let Cummings have first pick of what he’d like to take back to Montana before selling the rest.

The partnership between the Coates and Cummings is more like family than business, which is what makes them work so well together. “If we can continue to produce these horses, let’s do it so one day my kids can ride them,� Cummings says.

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W ESTERN H O R SEM A N

M AY 2 01 8

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RIDE WEST

WOMEN OF THE WEST

Bonnie Beauchamp-Cooke This Georgia horsewoman makes a living raising cattle and creating art that shows her passion for the Western way of life.

class and was told, “Paint what you are passionate about.” I did a horse. It went from there.

We put Goose Creek into a conservancy, locked it down. It takes away a lot of potential value, so we thought about it for a long time. It was important to us that it should stay like this—untouched.

I’ve had a lot of horses: ponies, Appaloosas, Appendix Quarter Horses, Tennessee Walkers. I like a horse that’s long and tall. And I want one to be bonded with me. You never know what’s around the corner.

When Kyle left to go to college, I was a mess. I didn’t lose my boys, but they went away. I went down to the barn to Curious George, Kyle’s horse, and started hugging him. He just stood there. I cried and let it out.

Interview and photography by CHRISTINE HAMILTON ACCORDING TO THE GEORGIA CATTLEMEN’S ASSOCIATION, there are 15,000 beef cattle operations in the Peach State.

They are often called farms rather than ranches, and plenty work cattle horseback like Goose Creek Farm in Madison—Bonnie Beauchamp-Cooke’s lifelong home.

Bonnie and her husband, George Cooke, run the cowcalf operation alongside Bonnie’s parents, Bob and Janet Beauchamp. In a good year, its grass-rich 1,100 acres can support as many as 300 pairs. With intense rotational grazing, they can graze 10 months out of the year and still put up hay for winter. They produce grass-fed beef sold directly to markets such as Farm Burger restaurants.

Bob grew up dreaming of raising cattle, but he became a lawyer in Atlanta.

He bought Goose Creek in the late 1960s. Bonnie, 50, grew up split between suburban Atlanta and Madison, but horseback in both. She rode jumpers, and helped gather and work cattle out of pinewoods.

In college, her penchant for drawing flourished into what became an artistic career. Represented in

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galleries from Atlanta to Dallas, Bonnie is known for painting horses and is sought for commission work. When she’s not horseback pushing cattle or running the bush hog, she paints in her studio by the lake at the farm.

Married for 25 years, she and George have two sons, Tristan and Kyle. They share Bonnie’s devotion to life on the land in Madison.

Beauchamp is English, so it’s [pronounced] “beechum.” In school I wanted them to say it like the French would, “beau-sham.” It sounded so much better.

Our goal in a cow-calf operation is to keep their stress level down. Horses are the best way to move them for that. If you get a runner, you just keep the herd moving and they’ll come back.

We’ve learned a lot over the years. We used to have a lot of runners because we would chase them. But it was fun.

I was in ninth grade and I had the best art teacher. She said, “What is your favorite thing?” Horses! She asked me to do a drawing of a horse.

When I went to the University of Georgia, I took an art

in hand and was putting in wine and all these cheeses, and I said, “What are you doing? This is crazy.” He said, “We’re going to have a picnic.” We rode out in a pasture and he proposed. I was like, “Of course!”

“This is my oasis; I love this place.”

This place hasn’t been in our family forever, but we’re creating that legacy. Hopefully, my kids will be sharing it with their kids and their grandkids, and for however many more generations.

I met George at a Steve Earle concert in a bar in Atlanta, the Cotton Club. He drove up on a motorcycle and had long hair and I thought, “Who is that?” We love country music and we talked about that. I took him to the farm on our first date.

When George proposed to me, he had saddlebags

WESTER N HO R SEM A N

Every painting I create has a piece of the farm on it. I take molding paste, ply it with my hands and mix in dirt from the farm. It’s hand-applied to the canvas, and the painting goes on top of that.

That thick medium creates lighting and texture, and has almost a 3D effect. It gives you that energy horses have; they are always moving.

I can count on our sons to come back and take my place here, eventually, and that means a lot to me.

They both have the passion for the farm. We have the same genes.

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W ESTER N HO R SEM A N

19

RIDE WEST CLASSIC COWBOYS

Bill Blankenship

This Montana cowboy has spent his entire life horseback and with cattle, and also served as a brand inspector for more than 40 years.

Story and photography by JENNIFER DENISON

A

T THE END OF THE DAY, as dark, swirling storm clouds build over eastern Montana, Bill Blankenship rides back to the barn after checking cattle on his small ranch south of Glendive. He unsaddles his blue roan horse, Blue Duck, turns him loose in the corral and throws him some hay.

“I think I’ll keep him up tonight,” he says, as he turns off the tack room light, closes the door and walks toward his house.

It’s a habit to keep a horse penned up at night and let the others loose. Blankenship developed it while serving as a Montana brand inspector.

“I’d get called out to investigate a case at all hours of the night,” he says, “and I could just load up the horse and go. I don’t think every brand inspector was horseback as much as I was, but sometimes it was the only way I could get a job done. It was a huge part of my job. I wasn’t a fan of doing paperwork and working on the computer, but I could get something accomplished horseback, and it really balanced things out for me and kept me going all those years.”

After serving 43 years and seven months as a brand inspector on local, district and state levels, Blankenship retired April 1, 2016. His second cousin, Robin Blankenship, is one of many brand inspectors he mentored through the years.

A native of eastern Montana, Blankenship grew up on a family ranch about 35 miles from where he now lives. He still owns part of that ranch, where he grazes his own cattle during the summer.

“My family raised purebred Herefords, and I still do that and also cross some of my Hereford cows on Black Angus bulls,” he says. “I really like the Hereford disposition, and I think the breed is just as good as any of today’s Black Angus cattle. There aren’t any Herefords in this part of Montana

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anymore, so if I see one roaming around I know it’s mine.”

In 1972, after graduating from high school, Blankenship married his wife, Kitty, who grew up “one creek over” from him. He cowboyed on ranches and worked as a local brand inspector before becoming a market inspector at sale barns in Glasgow and Sidney, Montana. He later became a district brand inspector in charge of four northeastern Montana counties. In 1989, he and Kitty, and their two young children, Joe and Becky, moved back to Glendive. He remained a district brand inspector and had four surrounding counties under his jurisdiction, and also continued to build his own cattle herd.

To become a certified brand inspector, Blankenship had to attend a law-enforcement academy.

“As a brand inspector, I had the same arrest power as a deputy sheriff,” he explains. “I worked a lot of rural thefts, and they weren’t all cattle thefts. We sent guys to prison for stealing saddles.”

Blankenship says he enjoyed the diversity of the job.

“One day I might be roping stolen or stray cattle in a pasture somewhere and hauling them back to their owners, and the next day I could be testifying in court or interviewing people about a crime not even related to livestock,” he says. “There were a lot of cases I found interesting to work on and people wouldn’t expect a brand inspector to be handling them, but we did. I took it as a compliment when a sheriff would asked me to help him with cases, even if they didn’t involve livestock. I worked beside some of the finest law-enforcement officers anywhere. Their friendship and respect really meant something to me.”

While cattle rustling still happens, Blankenship says time has changed the way cattle are stolen.

“The days of a thief going into a pasture with a trailer and saddle horse and roping critters and hauling them off have decreased,” he explains. “Now, there’s a lot of fraud and thefts being committed on cattle operations by employees and on the computer. There are more livestock crimes committed than people realize.”

That’s why branding livestock is so important.

M AY 2018

“Our saying at the office was that your brand is your return address for your livestock,” says Blankenship.

Though he never rode broncs or rodeoed, Blankenship became a pick-up man in the late 1970s and worked for several Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association stock contractors, including Brookman Rodeo, then located in Wolf Point, Montana, until 2007. He picked up at rodeos all over Montana and Canada, including the Montana Pro Rodeo Circuit Finals, Montana High School Rodeo Association Finals and the Mile City Bucking Horse Sale.

It was hard to find affordable horses already trained to pick up, so Blankenship bought stout horses wherever he could find them and made his own. He trained them while working cattle on the ranch or at the sale barn, and they became handy ranch and pick-up horses.

“I admire a good pick-up horse as much as any horse,” he says. “It takes the best horses there are to pick up on. It goes against every instinct they have to ride up to a running, bucking bronc. The horse has to have a lot of confidence in himself and faith in his rider, and a lot of heart.”

Blankenship fondly recalls “Spook,” a horse brought to the Cody Night Rodeo in Cody, Wyoming, to be bucked.

“My son, Joe, was picking up there and bought the horse and sent him to me,” recalls Blankenship. “He bucked a little, but he wasn’t mean—he just had the wrong start. I went on to pick up at a lot of rodeos on that horse, and Joe still has him today.”

He also mentions “Baldy,” who he used to pick up in bareback riding.

“He was quiet and ready to go whenever I needed him,” says Blankenship. “I’d lay my reins over the saddle horn and could work on getting a bronc rider’s hand out of his rigging when he was hung up, and Baldy would stay right with the bronc.”

Since retiring, Blankenship says he’s been busier than ever spending time with his seven grandchildren, working with his cattle, helping at the local sale barn and going to neighbors’ spring brandings.

“When I retired I told my wife, Kitty, that we going to go cruising,” he jokes.

“Cruising right out to the creek and building some fence. If I didn’t have this ranch I wouldn’t know what I’d do.”

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21

RIDE WEST

Wilderness Etiquette

With summer approaching, many horsemen are planning a pack trip or trail ride in wilderness areas. Be courteous on the trail with these tips.

By CHRIS EYER with KATE BRADLEY BYARS

1

I

NEVITABLY, RIDERS COMING from different directions will meet head-on at a skinny section of trail. No one wants to turn back to lose time or re-tread ground they already crossed, but someone has to move. In situations like this, unspoken etiquette rules the wilderness trails that crisscross the United States. From the Southwest to the Canadian border, no matter where you roam, knowing how to yield the right of way or properly say hello at another group’s campsite is essential for keeping riders and stock safe in the backcountry.

The last thing anyone wants to do is cause someone else a problem on the trail. The wilderness areas are available to everyone, but that doesn’t mean that every visitor uses the area in the same way. Packers, like me, have a job to do getting supplies to paying customers or to remote U.S. Forest Service camps. If you’re out on a causal ride, remember to be a good steward of the land and respect your fellow riders.

Yield the Right of Way

The biggest issue on the trail is yielding the right of way to the longer string. If you come across someone that is pulling more animals than you are—not more animals than they are riding but that they’re pulling—that person has the right of way.

I had a situation like this a couple of years back. I was by myself, riding my horse and pulling nine mules. I came across eight people out on a day ride. It was along kind of a bad, skinny stretch of trail. They thought I should turn around because they had more people than I did; but that is the point, I can’t directly control all of my animals.

If you come across one rider pulling a pack animal, your group of 20 riders on their own horses yields the right of way to the pack string. Pack animals have the right of way, always.

2 22

Make a U-Turn

In the event that you are the shorter string and you have to

turn around, the first thing you do is get off your horse and turn it around. Then work your way from front to back, turning each animal around.

The rule is always let their heads swing over the low side of the trail, or over the cliff. If you do that, they will never step off the trail. There have been so many wrecks where people turn the horse’s head uphill. The animal can’t see that there’s nothing directly behind it and it steps off the trail. If you turn over the low side, the animal can look at it, back up the hillside and turn around. It won’t walk up a hill to turn around until its back end falls off the trail. Can you imagine a mule that is loaded down stepping off the edge?

3

Don’t Graze at the Trailhead

All trailheads are different and not too many have stock pens, and those that do have corrals are not for public use but for the Forest Service or outfitters. The big no-no is turning your

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KATE BRADLEY BYARS

BACKCOUNTRY

animals loose to graze at the trailhead. What we do have is “feed bunks,” which are big mangers with steel rods to tie the animals. This allows them to stand and eat all night. It sounds like common sense, but I’ve been camping at a trailhead and people turn animals loose to graze, so then the horses are walking through my camp and messing with other people’s stuff. Keep your animals in hand at the trailhead.

4

Be a Good Neighbor

There is an ongoing user conflict with hikers in the backcountry. It is just now showing up on the radar here in Montana, but it is a big deal in California and Arizona.

There are fewer horse people these days, and more hikers out there. Hikers are resentful in many ways because horse people tend to tear up the trail and have a bigger impact on the land. Our camps are more intense and we leave a bigger mark. We turn trails to powder and people have to hike through horse manure. I get where hikers are coming from.

When I see hikers, I get off my horse or mule to talk to them. A couple of old-time packers advised me that if I stopped to talk to a hiker, get off my horse to talk. In the feudal days, landlords rode around the fields on horses and talked down to the peasants.

I don’t want to give the wrong impression. We are all working to preserve our backcountry; no one should talk down to another, literally and metaphorically. Get on their level and talk to people.

Pack strings have the right of way, so people have to get off the trail. In the Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex in Montana, hikers are savvy and get off the trail. I always ask them to go to the low side of the trail so they don’t scare the animals, because when mules and horses are attacked, it will come from above. I also ask the people to talk to the animals so the animals are aware of their presence. Just say, “Hey, horses. It’s okay, mules.” When I have nine mules behind me, they won’t have seen the hikers yet, and I don’t want the stock to be startled when they do.

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Camp Correctly

The old Forest Service adage is “pack in, pack out.” If you bring it in, trash or whatever it might be, bring it out. The other thing is grazing stock. Horse users have the biggest impact on an area during camping, including over-grazing. If possible, turn as many animals as you can loose to free-range. When you use a hot-wire corral, make it big and move it often to lessen the impact of grazing.

Do not put all of your animals on the stream or lake edge. It is hard to have a lot of animals on a bank and it will break down that habitat. When I pack into established camps—and those are all over the place—many have a trail to the water and I will use that.

At a virgin camp spot, I will change up where I bring the animals to water. Now, if you free-range, the animals will go from different spots to the watering hole.

Also, if possible, do not tie to a tree! Sometimes that is a must, but make sure it is a temporary tie. Horses will paw at the base of the tree, and when you expose the roots it will die. Never leave animals tied to a tree overnight. Use hobbles, high-line or a hot-wire corral, or let your horses graze free-range.

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Ride Around Camps

Your route often will take you through or near someone else’s camp. If you’re going to stop and say hello, don’t ride straight into their camp. It’s proper to stop outside of the camp, tie up your animals and walk in.

Also, if they are free-range grazing their animals and their stock starts to follow yours, stop to let the people know. Pack stock will follow another string right out of a camp and for miles down the trail. If I let them know, but they brush it off and say their animals will come back, then I don’t stop. If they start to capture animals, I wait until they have all of their stock. But I won’t wait forever if they don’t show some urgency. I have a deadline and miles to go, so I can’t waste half an hour.

7

Lend a Hand

If you come across people having trouble with their stock on the trail, stop and help! I have seen people ride past another horseman who is obviously having trouble. Whether it is a hiker or a hunter or another packer, offer a hand. Help is usually a long way off, so we have to be there for each other in the backcountry. Every year, I wind up helping someone out of a bad situation. People took the time to help me when I was first learning to pack, and I am so grateful to them.

8

Control Your Dogs

Enjoy the wilderness. It is our land and our privilege to ride in and enjoy it.

However, we also need to know how to keep out of trouble on the trail.

CHRIS EYER works with the U.s. Forest service and other groups to bring supplies into the Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex. the horsepacker is based in stevensville, Montana.

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KAtE BrAdlEY BYArs

My dog, Otis, goes on every pack trip with me. Most wilderness areas allow dogs and don’t enforce leash laws, but check before you go. Many national parks limit where dogs are allowed. Most horse people have dogs and they are good with stock, but be sure you can control your dog. I have seen wrecks caused and animals hurt by aggressive dogs. If there is a question, just leave the dog at home.

RIDE WEST

Danger in the Grass

Green grass means more pasture time, but safe transition to spring turnout is essential for horses.

By KATE BRADLEY BYARS

M

UCH LIKE A KID IN A CANDY SHOP wants to eat sweets until bursting, a horse turned out on new, green grass will overeat to its detriment. While green grass is a welcome sign of spring, horse owners should take precautions to ensure horses don’t overeat to the point of where medical intervention is required.

Tanja Hess, DVM, PhD, knows the potential dangers hiding in the grass.

Complications such as laminitis and colic can happen from horses overeating fresh spring grass. To avoid these issues, Hess says it’s essential to understand how an increase in grass intake affects a horse. Then, with a simple plan and watchful eye, owners can safeguard against a horse overeating during turnout.

Hess’ hands-on experience as a horse owner and her time as a private practitioner help her understand the trials of equine ownership. In addition to her veterinary degree, she received her doctorate in equine nutrition and exercise physiology. Today, she teaches exercise physiology, equine disease management, principles of equine nutrition and more at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado.

Here, Hess breaks down what an owner needs to know about summer grass.

COMPLEX RELATIONSHIPS Like too much sugar causes a tummy ache in people, excessive fructan in grass can throw a horse’s system out of normal balance. What can occur when the system is out of balance? Laminitis and colic are the major concerns.

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W E STER N H O R SEM A N

START SLOW ➊ Any change in diet, including turnout, should be done slowly, Hess says.

Regardless of whether the horse has been on an eight-hour turnout or been fed an

M AY 2 01 8

CHRISTINE HAMILTON

HEALTH

Laminitis means inflammation of the laminae, two tissue layers on the surface of the coffin bone that connect it to the hoof wall. Inflammation damages the laminae, with long-term effects varying from horse to horse, depending on the extent of the damage.

According to the American Association of Equine Practitioners, “over ingestion of grass high in fructans may cause a gastrointestinal upset that leads to systemic disease and may similarly result in the development of laminitis.”

Cases of horses overeating to the point of developing laminitis can happen throughout the year, Hess says. When temperatures change and Even horses grasses thaw and begin to accustomed grow quickly, however, to turnout can the chances increase. One develop health problems from reason for this is a spike fresh spring in the level of fructan, or grasses. sugar, in the grass.

Fructans are found in cool-season forages and produced through photosynthesis. These specially adapted sugars cannot be digested in the horse’s stomach and small intestine. Instead, Hess says, the fructan ferments in the hindgut, causing absorption of toxins and leading to laminitis or colic.

When the grass freezes at night and then thaws during the day, Hess says it will have a higher level of fructan in the afternoon. Much like it does in people, too much sugar negatively affects horses.

Colic is caused by different factors, such as fermentation in the hindgut and stomach, spasms in the gastrointestinal tract, and lack of digestive movement due to dehydration. It also can be caused by overeating.

How does a horse owner use this information about fructans in grasses and guard against these health dangers?

Taking a common-sense approach to turnout is best, and following these tips can help ensure your horse stays healthy through the spring.

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all-hay diet during the winter, once new grasses begin to sprout, it is time to restrict pasture access.

“I would start with one hour and increase it slowly. Do not turn out a horse for eight hours on grass after a long time off of grass, or if the green grass is getting tall,” Hess says.

“Increase the number of hours slowly until you get to the desired amount of time you want them turned out.”

Hess suggests starting with one hour a day for a week, and then gradually increasing the time. Overnight or morning turnout is best for horses adjusting to more grass intake, or horses that have previously had laminitis issues, because it reduces the possibility of grazing grasses with high fructan levels.

MONITOR INTAKE ➋ It is important to monitor the horse’s body condition when adding pasture time. A horse that is fat and not regularly exercised is often more susceptible to laminitis than one that is in a consistent riding program.

An easy keeper—a horse that maintains a healthy body condition score without excessive feed—should be monitored closely when turned out on grass.

Horses with a body condition score of 7 or higher are more susceptible to laminitis, says Hess, than those in a regular riding program that have a body condition score of 5.

“Laminitis happens more to the easy keepers,” Hess says. “Grazing muzzles are a good tool to reduce [grass] intake, or, in a worst-case scenario you have to keep them on a dry lot.

“You need to be able to monitor the intake to maintain a healthy horse.”

Additionally, water deficiency can lead to colic. Keep track of the amount of water a horse drinks when stalled or in a turnout. Automatic waterers are popular, but don’t offer a visible measure of how much water a horse drinks during a given time.

Ensuring the horse has consumed ample water decreases the chance of colic.

M AY 2018

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HEED WARNING SIGNS Despite all of your best efforts to prevent laminitis caused by your horse eating too much green grass, it’s a good idea to know its warning signs.

Most horses will appear in pain.

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A horse with laminitis: Is unwilling to walk or pick up its feet.

Has a hot coronary band.

Has elevated vital signs, like an increased heart rate.

Attempts to shift its weight off of the front feet. For example, it shuffles back and forth, or “dances” with its feet, without putting pressure on one foot too long; walks with its weight rocked back on to the hind end; or stands with one foot elevated.

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“If you see the horse walking gently, or their feet seem tender, the horse should be put in a dry lot, given whatever anti-inflammatory drug the veterinarian suggests and put on hay [with a known nutrient content] in a limited amount,” Hess advises.

Closely monitor the horse, checking its feet before and after turnout. The earlier a veterinarian can treat a horse suspected of These signs of colic can overlap signs of laminitis: Elevated heart and respiratory rates Excessive sweating Repeatedly lying down and getting up, and rolling Biting or kicking at the abdomen

• • • •

developing laminities, the better its chances for recovery.

In summary, Hess says to keep it simple: Don’t let the horse overeat.

“Watch your horses’ weight, turn them out slowly, and any changes in the feeding schedule should be done slowly,” she says. “And be sure the horse is drinking water during turnout.”

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RIDE WEST

says. “We worry about beating other people and wind up beating ourselves.”

Additionally, a horse or rider that is out of shape usually has trouble meeting expectations.

“Be sure your horse is fit enough before you go to show; long-trot and lope a couple of days a week to get that horse in shape,” Peters says. “You should be in as good a physical condition as your horse. Together, you will be better performers.”

With Peters’ advice, showing can be a positive experience. Here, she outlines how to conquer four typical problems that block the path to a successful show.

PROBLEM #1: Over-riding

Even at a show as big as the American Quarter Horse Association Versatility Ranch Horse World Championships, Marilyn Peters remains calm by following her plan, ensuring a smooth ranch riding pattern.

HORSEMANSHIP

Set Up Success

Oklahoma trainer Marilyn Peters advises riders on how to confidently conquer show-pen challenges.

Story and photography

by KATE BRADLEY BYARS

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T

ALES OF DISASTROUS

show-pen rides abound in the horse industry. You know them: Instead of riding the horse like you did in your practice ride at home, show nerves, not-so-helpful suggestions from friends, or plain poor planning all contribute to a bad show experience.

Marilyn Peters trains reined cow horses and versatility ranch horses, and has more than 40 years’ experience showing and training. She holds judge’s cards in the American Quarter Horse, National Reined Cow Horse and National Reining Horse associations, which gives her insight as to what a judge sees going wrong during a rider’s run. This experience, coupled with years of coaching non-professional and youth competitors, has taught Peters that whatever can go wrong at a horse show will go wrong, especially if the rider doesn’t have a plan.

“We all put too much pressure on ourselves to perform in the pen,” she

W E STER N H O R SEM A N

Whether it is your first show or 50th, it pays to have a plan. Going into a show that will be an all-day affair where you will compete in four or five classes requires a different strategy than riding in only one class.

Peters says it’s best to divide your day.

“You compartmentalize classes at home; you don’t ride all the different events in each practice [session]. You can’t prepare for all of your classes that day during one morning warm-up,” Peters explains. “If ranch riding is first, get the horse relaxed and listening to your aids, but don’t worry about sliding stops. Then, when you get to the next class, focus on the specific elements of that event [during warm-up].”

Staying in a similar routine as you do at home helps keep the horse focused. After each class, even if there are just 15 minutes between events, Peters suggests getting off the horse.

Instead of “camping out” on the horse’s back, allow it to get water and relax. Then, when it is time to prepare for the next class, get the horse loosened up.

“The key is to know how much warm-up your horse needs, and don’t over-ride the horse,” she says. “In the morning, we take the edge off by walking, trotting and loping, but not schooling. Before each class, we get the horse responsive and loose.”

Injuries can happen when a horse is over-tired. Being tired can also make the horse less responsive. Peters

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reiterates the importance of knowing how much to ride your horse to get its optimum response before each class.

PROBLEM #2: Getting Tense Arriving at a horse show instantly brings on a case of butterflies for some competitors, and that will transfer to the horse. When the horse feels “off ” to the rider—too tense or edgy— Peters first looks at that person’s horsemanship.

“Most of us tend to stiffen up, ride forward, with your legs and hands tight [at a show],” she says. “When your aids are quicker than they are at home, it all translates to your horse, making it nervous and edgy.”

Instead of tightening up, Peters recommends finding a way to relax.

That can mean different things to every rider, but it can be as simple as walking the horse and humming a song. Peters says riders also should check their body position.

“Are you clamping your legs on your horse? Make sure you can feel your seat bones in the saddle,” she says.

“Then, make sure your hand is where you normally carry it to ride. If all those things check out and are what you feel normally when you ride at home, but the horse is still stressed, you may need to spend more time in the warm-up pen.”

Before showing in ranch cutting, Peters checks her horse’s response to stopping (above) and turning (below) to ensure it is prepared to properly work a cow.

PROBLEM #3: Reinventing Your Style Imitation is considered the highest form of flattery, but reinventing your riding style to match a top competitor can mean disaster, especially if you make the changes at the horse show.

Helpful friends and even other horse trainers often suggest changes, both major and minor, to improve a horse or rider pre-show. Peters says to incorporate those changes—if they are warranted—when you return home, not in the warm-up arena.

“Say you never school your horse into the fence on stops, and you get to the horse show and everybody else is doing it, so you do it, too,” she says. “All you wind up doing is confusing the horse.

Your training should have been done before the show. A horse show is

30

stressful for the horse. It is not the place to incorporate new things.”

While changing your hand position or using more spur might be good suggestions, wait to try them out at home, in a controlled environment.

Stick to the strategy that worked at home for the horse show.

PROBLEM #4: Stopping to Visit Peters suggests not getting in the habit of sitting and visiting in the warm-up pen. Even a horse that has been ridden can get its second wind after sitting still for a while. It’s best to keep moving, she advises, and focus on your horse.

W E STER N H O R SEM A N

“Don’t prepare, go sit with your friends, and then go straight to the arena,” she says. “You can’t expect that horse to be focused, because it has been standing flat-footed. You don’t have to work the horse, but keep it moving.”

Peters walks, checking her aids and the horse’s response. It can keep both horse and rider focused, and also relaxed. But any horse can require more warm-up than a rider might expect.

“When all else fails, long-trot,” Peters says.

In addition to the horse getting its energy back, a nervous rider might cause the horse to get tense, exacerbat-

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“Focus on making the ride the best it can be that day,” says Peters. “Ride the horse you have and don’t try to make your horse better than it can be, especially if it is having an off day. You can’t make your horse better in one day, but you can make it worse. Have a plan, stick with it, and don’t let someone else dictate your ride.”

In the show pen, Peters is confident her preparation will work.

ing the situation. When the clock is ticking on show time, Peters says to take the wind out of the horse rather than over-schooling.

“Exercise the horse, take the edge off, but don’t try to ‘crash’ train on the horse because you feel tense,” she says. “It doesn’t do any good to jerk or pull on

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your horse right before a class. If you trot or lope four or five times around the arena, you can take the edge off without undoing all of your preparations.”

Above all, keep the horse comfortable and manage your own expectations, Peters says.

W E STER N H O R SEM A N

MARILYN PETERS owns and operates Bar JP Quarter Horses and Arabians in Edmond, Oklahoma, alongside her husband, Pete. In 40 years of training and showing, she has earned titles and awards in NRCHA and AQHA competition, including winning an NRCHA Open Two-Rein world championship and reserve, and several AQHA year-end awards and AQHA World Championship Show top-10 placings.

The Peters have two children, Lloyd and Jamie, a multiple AQHA and NRCHA champion, and NRCHA judge.

M AY 2 01 8

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RIDE WEST According to Equi-Stat, since 2008 the annual total numbers for ranch versatility shows and entries, as well as the combined amounts for added money and purses, have trended slowly upward.

ARENAS

Forming Alliances A new national organization seeks to unite regional stock horse competition associations and keep cattle in ranch versatility.

I

Story and photography by CHRISTINE HAMILTON

T SOUNDS LIKE AN ODD CONCERN: ensuring that cattle classes remain a part of ranch horse competitions. But that was part of the reason why six organizations launched the Western horse industry’s newest national discipline association— the National Ranch and Stock Horse Alliance—in February.

The founding organizations come from across the United States: the East Coast Stock Horse Association in Virginia; National Versatility Ranch Horse Association in Colorado; Oklahoma Stock Horse Association; Stock Horse of Texas; Western States Versatility Ranch Horse Association, representing Arizona

34

and California; and the American Quarter Horse Association.

“We felt like it was time to come together with a national presence for the ranch and stock horse industry to define ourselves and stay faithful to the purpose of a ranch horse,” says Jill Dunkel, executive director of SHTX. “All of these groups offer ranch horse and stock horse competitions. All of them offer a wide variety of classes. That’s important to us: to preserve the versatility of these horses to include their ability to handle livestock.”

Becky Grant of WSVRHA agrees, adding that the timing seems right.

“We’ve been doing this versatility ranch horse [ format] out here for about

W ESTER N H O R SEM A N

10 years, trying to encourage people to come do it,” Grant says. “And in the last two years or so, the interest has really picked up.”

Since 2008, the annual total numbers for ranch versatility shows and entries, as well as the combined added money and purses, have trended slowly upward, even in the wake of a nationwide recession. From 2015 to 2017 alone, the total purse monies those events offered increased by 40 percent— from $332,131 to $551,204—and entries were up by 84 percent, according to Equi-Stat, the statistical division of Cowboy Publishing Group.

“We believe that an alliance of associations will give more weight and value to what we’re doing,” Grant says, “so we’re not just a little club all to ourselves.”

There are significant benefits to NRSHA member organizations in working together. One is to help make it easy for people nationwide to find a ranch horse competition. The NRSHA website has a calendar that includes all six alliance members’ events, searchable by date, location and organization.

Another is to provide a year-end national show for NRSHA member

M AY 2 01 8

organizations. The inaugural NRSHA championship show will be held June 13−17, 2018, in conjunction with the AQHA Versatility Ranch Horse World Championships in Guthrie, Oklahoma.

This first show is open to all riders who have participated in at least one alliance member show between January 1, 2017, and February 28, 2018. According to Dunkel, those qualification requirements could change for 2019.

The NRSHA championship does not replace any year-end shows that individual NRSHA member organizations might hold. “[The NRSHA championship] will be all-breed, and include all skill levels from open to novice,” Dunkel says. “And the classes will be held concurrently [with AQHA versatility world show classes], so riders make one run if they enter the [AQHA] versatility and the NRSHA.” She points out that riders do not buy an additional membership to the NRSHA if they are already members of an alliance organization.

“Additionally, the NRSHA is going to be a strategic marketing alliance member with AQHA,” Dunkel says.

“That means that when [a registered Quarter Horse owner] shows with [an NRSHA member organization], their earnings and major year-end accomplishments will go on their horse’s record. We hope to have that with other breed associations, too, down the road.”

Grant and Dunkel both stress that NRSHA member organizations will maintain their independence.

“Each of us have our unique differences,” Grant says. “For example, we all have four or five core divisions that are the same, like the open, but some have additional divisions, such as novice and walk/trot. We wanted to be able to maintain our autonomy, but bring our class rules and overall goals into alignment.”

Each of the six alliance member organizations has one vote in the NRSHA, Dunkel explains. There will be an application process for other ranch and stock horse organizations to join.

M AY 2018

“There will be minimum qualifications, such as they’ll have to be a non-profit; they’ll have to have a variety of ranch and stock horse classes including at least one cattle class at every event; and they’ve got to have a minimum of 100 members,” she says.

“There may be other requirements, but we do want [NRSHA] to grow.”

All NRSHA member organizations share a desire to provide riders at every level a chance to compete against their peers as well as to offer opportunities to improve their horsemanship. Member organizations follow a format of offering clinics alongside competitions.

“The atmosphere at these clinics and shows is so friendly,” Grant says. “Everyone is helpful and cheering each other on, and we try to promote that lowstress, come-and-have-fun sort of feel.

It gets competitive, and there are really good riders and horses competing. In Arizona we often have a potluck after the clinic to encourage camaraderie and friendship.”

For more information on NRSHA, go to ranchhorse.net.

NATIONAL RANCH AND STOCK HORSE ALLIANCE ranchhorse.net

Founding Members American Quarter Horse Association Amarillo, Texas aqha.com East Coast Stock Horse Association Reva, Virginia eastcoaststockhorse.com National Versatility Ranch Horse Association Colorado Springs, Colorado nvrha.org Oklahoma Stock Horse Association Ardmore, Oklahoma oklahomastockhorseassociation.com Stock Horse of Texas Archer City, Texas stockhorsetexas.org Western States Versatility Ranch Horse Association Camp Verde, Arizona wsvrha.com

W ESTER N HO R SEM A N

35

RIDE WEST

RODEO

Tried and True

Saddle bronc riders bank on Wound Up for big bucks.

Story by KYLE PARTAIN Photography by ROSS HECOX

B

Wound Up has been a consistent performer for both Beutler and Son Rodeo Company and for saddle bronc riders like Cody Wright, shown at the 2016 NFR.

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W ESTER N H O R SEM A N

EUTLER AND SON RODEO COMPANY’S Wound Up is the type of horse every saddle bronc rider wants to draw when there’s big money on the line, because there are typically only two outcomes in such a scenario: a championship or an early exit. And that’s why she was chosen as the top saddle bronc of the year in 2017 in the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association.

“She’s just a super good horse and has been for years now,” says two-time PRCA World Champion Saddle Bronc Rider Cody Wright of Utah, who rode the mare to 90.5 points and a final-round victory at the 2016 Wrangler National Finals Rodeo. “I only had her that one time, but she does what the judges like to see.

She turns out of the chute and jump-kicks across the arena and gives a guy a chance to get his timing down. She’s got some nice hang time.

She’s definitely the one you want to have when you show up at a Beutler rodeo.”

It was the second straight year a cowboy won the NFR’s final round on Wound Up. Wade Sundell topped the mare for 88.5 points to win Round 10 in 2015. Layton Green had a chance to make it three years in a row in 2017, but hit the ground early. The mare also allowed cowboys to win round five in two of the last three years, with Zeke Thurston (2017) and CoBurn Bradshaw (2015) topping the round, while Rusty Wright didn’t make the whistle in 2016.

“She’s the right mixture of what the cowboys like,” says Rhett Beutler, who operates Beutler and Son Rodeo Company with his ProRodeo Hall of Fame father, Bennie Beutler. “If you do everything right, you can win on her. She doesn’t do anything dirty; she just straight-out bucks and gives you a chance to win. As a stock contractor, it’s rewarding to see guys winning the 10th round on our horse. The animals selected for the final round are the TV pen.

They’re supposed to be the best of the best

M AY 2 01 8

going against the best cowboys in the world. Having a guy win the final round on our horse is really special.”

A much smoother ride than the family-owned company’s Killer Bee, Wound Up is a ranch-bred and -raised bucker out of Round Up, who was also chosen to buck at the Wrangler NFR on several occasions. Wound Up’s sire is famed three-time PRCA Bareback Bronc of the Year Comotion, who dominated the event in the late 1990s.

“This is Round Up’s first offspring,” says Rhett. “When we start breeding these bucking horses we just don’t really know what to expect sometimes. Because of Comotion, we started her in the bareback riding.

She was okay there, but nothing special. One day in 2013, we decided to try her out as a saddle bronc. It was at our place in Oklahoma. I was flanking her and she about kicked me off the back of the chute when the gate opened. If you blinked, you wouldn’t have even seen the college kid who was trying to ride her.”

The now 10-year-old mare has been a saddle bronc ever since.

“When you get one that bucks like she does, the hardest part is being patient and letting the horse mature,” Rhett says. “If you don’t let them mature, then they can break bones pretty easily bucking that way. We shouldn’t have been too surprised because a lot of the colts sired by Comotion have bucked hard. He’s been a really good sire for us. We’ve got more young horses that are brothers and sisters of Wound Up that we hope to start hauling in the next year or two.”

Those horses have shown promise, but haven’t yet had the chance to prove how they’ll compare to their older sister.

“We really never know what we have in these horses until we start hauling them to San Antonio and Tucson and other big rodeos, and letting those top-notch cowboys get on them,” adds Bennie, who has seen his share of great buckers during a lifetime in rodeo. “We’ve never had one that was as snappy as Wound Up.

M AY 2018

W ESTER N HO R SEM A N

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Challenger [who tied for the top saddle bronc in 1987] and Blow Out [the top bronc in 1985]—two great horses we sent to the NFR in the 1980s—were like that. But they weren’t as nice to ride as Wound Up. “The cowboys will drive from Timbuktu to get on her. That says a lot about how much they like her.”

At 16 hands and roughly 1,250 pounds, Wound Up looks a lot like her sire. Comotion had Thoroughbred breeding in his pedigree, and that’s noticeable in Wound Up, as well, with her tall frame.

“Of course, we named her after her mom, but with a name like Wound Up you’d think she would be this highenergy, chute-fighting horse,” Rhett says. “But she’s nothing like that. She gets along with all the other horses and stands quiet in the chute. You can’t walk up to her in the pasture and pet on her, but she’s got an easygoing, laid-back personality.”

The Beutlers are proud—and rightfully so—that the mare was born and raised in their hometown of Elk City, Oklahoma. The historic stock contracting company has been home to winners of the annual stock of the year contest in essentially every decade since PRCA began handing out those honors.

“We love the fact that she was sired

by Comotion,” Bennie says. “We had so much success with that horse. To see his babies doing well for us a decade later makes us think our breeding program is going in the right direction.

After all these years, I’d say Wound Up is up there near the top with the greatest broncs we’ve ever produced. She’s so consistent, and I think that’s what makes her so special.”

Wound Up had to be special to wrestle the top saddle bronc title away from Frontier Rodeo’s Medicine Woman, who had won three consecutive (and four overall) titles heading into 2017. Wound Up garnered 53 points in voting to best Flying Five Rodeo’s Spring Planting (21 points) and Medicine Woman (12 points) in 2017.

Spring Planting is a two-time winner of the award, as well.

That’s some lofty competition for the former so-so bareback horse.

“You just never know how a horse will do in an event until you give them a try,” Rhett says. “I sure am glad we gave Wound Up the chance to compete in saddle bronc. From that first time, we were just like, ‘Wow, this is where she needs to be.’ ” KYLE PARTAIN is a Colorado-based freelance writer who has covered rodeo for 20 years.

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M AY 2018

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39

lO p tio ns ,

Wound Up was bred and raised by Beutler and Son Rodeo Company in Oklahoma.

RIDE WEST

YOUNG HORSEMEN

Bright Future

NAME: Tricia Tillman AGE: 18 HOMETOWN: Whitehall, Maryland WHERE SHE COMPETES: National Reining Horse Association ACCOLADES: 2016 NRHA year-end rookie professional champion, limited open champion and reserve champion, and intermediate open reserve champion. FUTURE PLANS: Tricia plans on earning a college degree online while working at Summerwind Farm.

At only 18 years old, Tricia Tillman has taken the reining world by storm.

By KATIE FRANK

ONG-TERM SUCCESS is built on a solid foundation, and Maryland trainer Tricia Tillman recognizes that commitment.

She’s dedicated herself to the sport of reining and during the week lives in a barn apartment at Summerwind Farm in Damascus, where she rides as an assistant trainer for National Reining Horse Association professional Bob LaPorta.

“So many successful trainers started out at Bob’s,” she says, mentioning NRHA Futurity open champion Craig Schmersal and NRHA $1 million rider Brian Bell. “A lot of people have got their foundation here, which is one of the things I love and why I’m here.”

Tillman has been horseback for as long as she can remember. She says since she was 4 years old, her mother, Kimberley, would drive the 68 miles from Whitehall, Maryland, on the Maryland-Pennsylvania border, to the barn six days a week so that mom and daughter could ride.

Being in a predominately English-focused part of the United States hasn’t sidetracked the young rider.

“I love reining and showing,” she says. “I enjoy the rush. I get super nervous. But hauling for the world title helps with that because you’re showing every weekend.”

By age 11, Tillman had won five championship buckles.

In 2015, at the age of 15, Tillman relinquished her non-pro status to become a trainer. She says at an age when most teens are getting jobs in town, she knew she wanted to pursue a career with horses. She has since won several NRHA world and reserve titles and top-10 finishes.

Tillman plans to continue training for the public, but wants to apply the same philosophy to her life as she does her show career by setting herself up for success.

“I try to be a realistic person,” she says. “If I get hurt, I have other avenues in life that I’d like to pursue, like going to college. I’m thinking a degree in business, but zoology has always interested me, too. If something happens, I’d want something to fall back on.

“I was homeschooled throughout high school. I want to get a college degree online, but I’m going to be working full- time as a horse trainer.”

ERIN ANDERTON

L

Tricia Tillman is the youngest professional in National Reining Horse Association history to have won three world titles in one year.

Do you know a young Western horseman or horsewoman worthy of a spotlight? Send your suggestion to edit@westernhorseman.com with “Young Horsemen” in the subject line.

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W E STER N H O R SEM A N

M AY 2 01 8



  







  



New look!









SHOW-DAY ROUTINE: “The rubber bands I use in my horses’ tails have to be royal blue.

I pull them out before I show, so I’m not sure how it helps. We get them at Walmart, in the thousand-pack, multi-colored rubber band boxes that kids use to make rubber band bracelets, and I pull the blue ones out and put them in the show box in the trailer.”

    

FAVORITE MOVIE: “Crocodile Dundee is my go-to movie. I have to have the TV on when I go to sleep. And the second and third [sequels] are up there, too.”

HOBBIES: “I love to cook and bake. And I make it all from scratch. It works your hands and a little bit of your mind, but it’s not physically exhausting.”

SUPERSTITION: “If I get to pick my back number, it has to have a 2, 6 or 8. If I can get a back number with all those numbers in it, I’m ready-set. My birthday is the 2nd, so I like 2.

And Mr. Bob is superstitious about the number 8. And then I just like a 6.”

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M AY 2018

W ESTER N H O R SEM A N

41

RIDE WEST

All Dressed Up and Nowhere to Go, 23½-by-17-inch pencil

WESTERN ART

Behind the Portrait

Pencil artist Robyn Cook shows the character and personality of working ranch horses and bucking bulls.

By KATIE FRANK

A

S SHE WALKED AWAY, he rested his chin on the panel and bawled at her to not go.

Artist Robyn Cook says seeing the softer side of tough Professional Bull Riders stock, such as topranked bull SweetPro’s Bruiser, is an inspiration for her latest work. It’s a deviation from the horse and dog portraits for which she’s become known.

“I want people to see [the bulls’] character, and that’s why I’ve been drawing portraits of them and not just of them bucking,” says Cook, who visited Bruiser before a PBR event in Springfield, Missouri. “They behave so much differently at home than when they’re at a rodeo. Some are so sweet you can pet on them all day like a dog. It cracks me up.

Some come up to the fence and drop their

42

Heart and Horns, 12-by-19½-inch pencil

heads. They just want their backs scratched. I can see how stock contractors get attached to them.”

Cook, who grew up on a small farm in Ozark, Missouri, now lives in Neosho and creates her pencil portraits in a studio in the barn. It’s decorated with some of her work and that of other Western artists, including, Robert “Shoofly” Shufelt.

“I’ve never met him, but he’s my favorite artist,” she says, adding, however, that they have emailed and discussed technique.

The self-taught artist credits Shufelt’s artwork in Western Horseman for inspiring her to draw as a young girl.

“A couple of years ago I sent him a picture of a little foal I was working on, and

W E STER N H O R SEM A N

he was trying to explain to me things about values and light sources,” she says “He gave me some wonderful suggestions, and asked for me to send my original reference [photos] to him. He sent back his rendering of what he was trying to explain. I was floored. It was a beautiful drawing of a foal.

Him drawing it explained more to me about it than words. It was like a map in a way, showing me anatomy and the differences in hard and soft lines.”

She says working ranch horses will always be her favorite subject, and pencil her favorite medium.

“It’s always caught my eye the most, and I like how it allows me to focus on the details,” she says.

M AY 2 01 8

Jackson Brown, 8-by-14-inch pencil Evian, 11-by-14-inch pencil Smooth Operator, 18-by-24-inch pencil

Fine Points

Medium: pencil Favorite Artists: Robert “Shoofly” Shufelt, Bill Owen and Andy Thomas Accolades: Wicked, best of show and first place at the 2018 Red Bluff Bull & Gelding Sale Art Show; Evian, first place two-dimensional art at the 2016 Friends of St. Avips Ball; All Dressed Up and Nowhere to Go, People’s Choice Award at the 2015 Traces of the West; Bad Idea, Both Times, best of show at the 2012 Western Spirit Art Show & Sale at Cheyenne Frontier Days.

Galleries: J.E. Cauthen and Sons, Fredericksburg, Texas, jecauthen.com Contact: 417-540-3049; robyncookart.com

KATIE FRANK PHOTO

A self-taught artist, Robyn Cook has won several best-in-show awards.

What is the most challenging part of a horse to draw?

One of the toughest is the neck, as crazy as that sounds, because if you don’t do it right it’s going to look warped or like the horse has foundered or something. A lot of it depends on the angles and lighting.

I’m also trying to loosen up a little bit and work on my values, like depth, lighting, shading and how the light hits something. As an artist, you should never stop learning or trying to get better.

How do reference photos help with your art?

It’s not just copying a photo. I use several reference shots that I

M AY 2018

take while I’m out riding or visiting friends’ ranches.

Sometimes I’ll even put the [reference shots] away and work on my own, which I think helps me work on my values and making sure I have good contrast. I want to work on my texture and get some more hard lines in there to counter the softer ones.

I only use photos I’ve taken myself. It can be difficult to take a reference photo, though.

Jackson Brown is a miniature donkey that is owned by a lady who lives in Branson. He likes to get right in the camera so I get lots of pictures of his nose.

What inspired you to start drawing bulls?

Some friends of mine suggested it several years ago, and a friend of mine has some bulls. It’s kept me really busy and I’ve had some commissions to draw them.

Gene Owen is a PBR bull owner who lives in Big Cabin [Oklahoma], which is only an hour from me. I go out to see him and his wife, Dawn, and they let me take pictures of their top bulls. I like the character of their bulls. Some have arrogance, and some have quietness about them. Some are just mean. Some are very calculating. They’re interesting to be around.

W ESTER N HO R SEM A N

What motivates you to draw?

It’s rewarding to create something. You don’t know if somebody is going to like it.

Art is a part of me, just like riding and training horses is for some people. One of the most rewarding things is if I get to do a commission for someone and draw their horse or dog they love so much.

If I never sold a drawing ever again, if I never got into another show, if I never won anything ever again, I’d still be home drawing. It’s part of who you are, and you can’t just ignore it.

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RIDE WEST

COLLECTIBLES

What’s It Worth?

A moosehide jacket has a family history dating back more than 100 years.

>This jacket is moosehide, and the moose

was shot by my grandfather [about] 1912 in northern Saskatchewan. He gave it to an Indian lady and asked her to tan the hide and bead it; I believe she was from the Cree tribe.

Gramps went off to World War I in 1913, as a member of the 13th Battalion of the Royal Highlanders, and was a sniper. He was wounded twice, lost an eye, and was ministered to by a nurse at Moorfields Eye Hospital in London. After the war, he and the nurse married and moved back to Saskatchewan, where Gramps became a grain buyer for the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool. He gave the jacket to my mother, but since it is a man’s jacket, she allowed my dad to wear it. Dad joined the Trail Riders of the Canadian Rockies in 1952 and wore the jacket until his retirement from TRCR in 1975. He also wore it to many Calgary Stampede functions.

My dad passed away nine years ago and he left the jacket to my brother, Donald, who decided to give it to me, so it has now been “repatriated” back to the TRCR. It is interesting to note that Dr. John Murray Gibbon, the founder of the TRCR, wore a beaded buckskin jacket; my father, who was president for three years and the “second founder” of the club as a non-profit in 1962, wore this jacket; and now I am wearing the same jacket in my fourth year as president. The legacy continues.

—STUART R. WATKINS, CANADA 44

WHEN I SAW YOUR JACKET, I consulted Don Born, an expert brain-tanner who lives near Colorado Springs, Colorado. Brain-tanning is a labor-intensive process that actually uses an emulsified solution of animal brains and water.

The result is a soft hide that can get wet and remain pliable, like your jacket.

Don explained that an animal hide has three layers: the epidermis, or outer layer, that forms the grain on chemically tanned leather; the dermis, which is the middle part that is tanned in the brain-tanning process; and a membrane layer that connects the skin of the animal to the underlying muscle. In brain tanning, the epidermis is scraped off, as is the membrane.

The dermis is left, and it is made of intertwined fiber surrounded by a substance similar to mucus, that lubricates the skin on a living animal. If the skin is left to dry, this substance acts as a glue to hold the fibers together, making rawhide. But when tanning, it’s best to get as much of it off as possible by soaking the hide in water and then wringing it out, repeating the process several times.

The hide is then brain-tanned by rubbing the brain solution over the hide, or immersing the hide in it. This is done several times to ensure that the hide is saturated with the solution. After this it is stretched over a frame until it is completely dry. It is then smoked over a bed of coals or wood, which turns the hide a golden color. The smoking process prevents the fibers from sticking together, and allows the hide to dry soft and pliable.

Moose tanning is a similar but more involved process, since the hide is large, thick and heavy. It must be rehydrated after it is smoked, and then stretched on a frame until it is dry and soft. Don adds that it takes a fair amount of experience to consistently tan moose hides into soft, durable leather like this jacket.

Following all of this, someone had to make the jacket and then apply the beadwork, as you stated. There are people who could do this today and the beads are still available. Seed beads like these are available from someone in the Czech Republic or there may be beads in Venice, Italy, that are 200 years old and never used.

The beadwork on your jacket is beautifully done, and has held up well. So has the jacket itself, especially considering the amount of wear it has. If you had a jacket like this made today it would cost about $5,000. I think the family history is important, however, and should ESTIMATED VALUE: add value.

$6,000

ABOUT OUR EXPERT MIKE GRAHAM and his wife, Gretchen, own Ruxton’s Trading Post in Manitou Springs, Colorado. They specialize in collectible pieces of Western Americana. The couple wrote the book Old Cowboy Saddles and Spurs—Identifying the Craftsmen Who Made Them. For more information, visit oldwestantiques.com.

Do you have a Western antique you’d like to know more about?

To find out how to submit your own item to our experts, go to westernhorseman.com.

W E STER N H O R SEM A N

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RIDE WEST

Tom Balding

Collaborating with top performance horsemen gives Tom Balding an edge in the bit- and spur-making industry.

P

Interview by JENNIFER DENISON

EOPLE OFTEN ASK TOM BALDING how he comes up with functional, innovative bits and spurs when he didn’t grow up riding horses. His response is simple: He consults the best horsemen on designs and then does what he does best—molding metal into shanks, rowels, mouthpieces and cheekpieces like a sculptor shapes clay into figures.

“I come up with new shapes for bits all of the time and send samples to top horsemen, who I call the ‘big guns,’ to try,” Balding explains. “It might take a few months, but they get back to me on whether it works or not, what phase of training it’s good for and how to use it. It’s like a musician fine-tuning a new instrument.”

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Raised in Southern California, Balding uncovered his talent for welding and manufacturing when he was a teenager while working for a company that made exhaust systems for racecars. He also worked as a precision welder on aircraft and sailboat parts.

In 1973, at age 23, he started his own certified precision welding business, and then in 1980 he moved to Sheridan, Wyoming, to escape the city. He worked on ranches and in construction, and bought his first horse.

He found his calling as a bit- and spurmaker and started Tom Balding Bits & Spurs in 1984. His work is known for its precision, quality and functionality, and is found on the headstalls and heels of top performance horsemen worldwide.

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Tom Balding started making bits and spurs in a singlewide trailer in 1984. Today, he gives tours of his shop in Sheridan, Wyoming, where visitors can see his fabrication processes and meet the staff.

After welding parts for racecars, aircraft and sailboats, what made you want to make bits and spurs?

I fell in love with riding and anything having to do with horses. When I moved to Wyoming, I didn’t think I’d ever want to weld again. I talked to saddlemaker Don Butler about learning to make saddles, and I played around with shoeing horses, but nothing really worked out.

Then one day [in 1984] a lady knocked on my door and had an aluminum bit with a broken shank she wanted fixed, and she’d heard I was a welder. That was an amazing moment, because I figured out what I was going to do. That night, I fixed her bit and started another. The next morning I ordered business cards.

On the way to town, however, I realized I didn’t know anything about bits, so I had Tom Balding Spurs put on the business cards and started making spurs.

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ADAM JAHIEL

GEAR TALK

A few months later, actor Ben Johnson was in King’s Saddlery [in Sheridan] and saw some spurs I’d made and called to order a bit from me. I told him I didn’t make bits, but he said he’d seen my spurs and knew I could make a bit. The first bit I finished was for Ben Johnson, and I charged him $100.

It was hard to get local business, and Don told me to set up a booth at a horse show in Gillette, Wyoming. I was unfamiliar with that concept, but for $30 I set up a card table with my spurs and slept in my 1971 Ford Ranchero because I couldn’t afford a hotel room. People lined up to see my work and I took a dozen orders that weekend.

Where do you get your ideas for bit designs?

In the beginning I’d travel to horse shows and set up booths, and pick people’s minds about their bits and spurs. A horseman like Ted Robinson or Bobby Ingersoll would come by and show me their favorite bits, and I’d try to make something similar geometrically but add some of my own elements to make it unique. Through the years, I’ve been fortunate to have worked with the best trainers in the industry to develop different designs. I appreciate their help and input. I work with them to build samples for them to try, and we modify them until they’re right.

How has the bit -and spurmaking industry changed since you started?

The quality of offshore manufacturing has improved, which actually inspires me to come up with new designs and constantly improve our quality and customer service.

When I first started my business, I remember going to [horse shows] and people having very harsh bits. Then I saw a swing toward milder bits and gentler training practices, but now I see it swinging back and some people thinking the way to achieve results with their horses is to be more severe. A bit is like a fine instrument and you have to

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learn to use it subtly, not fall into the habit of getting harder.

How have you streamlined the process of ordering a custom bit and spurs?

We have a feature on our website where you can click different options and build a bit or pair of spurs. It took three years for a company to develop this feature, and they told me there are more than 5 million different combinations of spurs alone [on our website].

Some people like to go in and spend hours customizing their bits and spurs, and I laugh because they know the names of the pieces better than I do.

Other people like the convenience of clicking and buying an in-stock bit, and they can do that, too.

Kelli Anderson, our office manager, has 20 years of experience and has helped thousands of customers design their bits and spurs. We also have a loaner bit program. People visit with Kelli about their horses and style of riding, and she sends them two or three bits from our comprehensive library to try out. We do everything we can to connect people with the right bits and spurs.

With so many similar bits and spurs on the market, how do you recommend makers prevent their designs from being copied?

It was devastating for us to have our designs knocked off, and we spent a lot of money in legal fees and in the end the attorneys really couldn’t do much. It’s really hard to protect functional art from being duplicated. I think the best way to distinguish your work is to make it unique and the highest quality out there. Sometimes a phone call asking for credit for the design is the best way.

I actually unkowingly designed a bit that I later found out was similar to a Myler mouthpiece, and I called them and told them I’d come up with a design and saw that it was like one of theirs.

They were fine with it.

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“We work hard to come up with new bits, because it’s the new stuff that keeps us going.”

Which of your bit designs stand out in your career?

The ballhinge is something I developed. I made the first ballhinge bit in 1986 for a polo trainer in Kentucky who didn’t want a bit that pinched. I spent months trying to develop that hinge. I knew I was onto something, but it was hard to make.

My all-time favorite bit is bit #154, the Advantage Short Double Cross. It has a heavier shank that provides a quick action and release. The Double Cross mouthpiece is our most popular mouthpiece. It began with a local rancher having trouble with horses getting their tongues over snaffles and asked me if I could put something in the middle of the mouthpiece. I put a little spoon in there with a copper roller and it makes a good all-purpose or transitional bit.

What designs will you be adding to your collection?

We work hard to come up with new bits, because it’s the new stuff that keeps us going. We’re really excited about our newest mouthpiece, the Verona. It’s a 2¾-inch-tall mouthpiece offered with or without a roller. It’s a great all-around mouthpiece accepted by most horses, allows tongue relief, promotes upright body position and collection.

The most popular combination has been the mouthpiece with the Tahoe shank. Both the shank and mouthpiece have a California/vaquero influence.

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RIDE WEST

COWBOY TASTES

WITH KENT & SHANNON ROLLINS

Out West Dutch Baby with Mixed Berries 10 minutes

INGREDIENTS

4 servings

DIRECTIONS Preheat the oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit. In a mixing bowl, whisk together

the eggs, flour, milk, sugar, salt, vanilla and ground ginger until smooth, and set aside. Place the butter in a 10-inch cast-iron skillet and melt over medium-high heat. Remove the butter from the heat and pour the batter into the skillet. Bake on the middle oven rack for 15 minutes or until puffed and golden brown around the edges. The middle will puff up and deflate after taking it out of the oven. There might be a little moisture in the middle of the Dutch baby as it cools and sets up a little, giving it a gooey texture. Slice and serve warm with berries or mixed fruit, powdered sugar, and syrup or whipped topping (optional).

—KENT ROLLINS

ROSS HECOX

3 eggs, beaten ¾ cup flour ½ cup milk 1 tablespoon sugar ¼ teaspoon salt ½ teaspoon vanilla 1 teaspoon ground ginger 2 tablespoons butter Berries or mixed fruit Powdered sugar Syrup or whipped topping (optional)

25 minutes

“This is a fun cast iron skillet favorite that is a spin on the classic pancake. This dough comes out soft and slightly gooey with a hint of ginger. Paired with mixed berries, it’s a sweet breakfast treat.”

Cowboy cooks KENT AND SHANNON ROLLINS are based in Hollis, Oklahoma, but spend most of their time cooking on ranches and at events across the United States. For more information on their cookbook, A Taste of Cowboy, and their cooking schools, visit kentrollins.com.

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W E STER N H O R SEM A N

M AY 2 01 8

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RIDE RIDE WEST WEST

PRODUCTS

Handy Hondas Whether you’re practicing, competing or working, choose a honda that will make your shot count.

The Hero Honda (suggested retail $25) clips over the top of an existing honda and converts it to a breakaway. herorodeo.com

The Braided Rawhide Pineapple Knot Honda with neck (suggested retail $45) keeps the end of the rope from breaking over, and is made with a rawhide burner. buckaroobusinesses.com

The Nothin But Horns breakaway honda (suggested retail $24.99) is designed for quick installation and consistent feel. The Nothin But Neck model is available for calf ropers. nothinbutneck.com

Partrade’s Honda (suggested retail $1.40) is a budgetfriendly choice made from cream plastic and features a breakaway cut. partrade.com

KATIE FRANK

The Great Basin Metal Honda (suggested retail $20) swivels and has a quick release. buckaroobusinesses.com

The San Joaquin Braided Honda with Pigtail (suggested retail $50) is sealed and varnished for durability. The pigtail makes it easier to loosen a loop. buckaroobusinesses.com

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M AY 2 01 8

KATIE FRANK

End of thE RopE

If you’re In the market for a honda, keep in mind the job you’ll be doing and how you’d like the rope to feel in your hands.

“A honda is a loop at the end of your rope that allows your rope to slide through,” says Scott Grosskopf, owner of Buckaroo Businesses in Billings, Montana. “In the arena world, riders typically ride with ropes that have a premade nylon honda on them, in which the honda is already tied in them.

It’s part of the rope. The advantage of a tied honda is that it’s set in the specific place you want it. In a timed or performance event, that’s what people turn to because they know they can have it where they want it and it will stay there. It’s more consistent for the arena.”

He explains that outside of timed events, working cowboys will cut the end of their rope and replace it with a honda made from a different material.

“In the ranch world, like in ranch roping or when starting colts or working with livestock, that’s where you get into the different materials for hondas,” Grosskopf says.

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He says metal hondas are a good investment and a great choice for working in inclement weather.

“Metal flows freer and releases faster than some other materials,” he says.

“When branding calves in the springtime when it can be wet and mucky, metal is not a synthetic material, so it’s not going to take on moisture like a rawhide or nylon. It’s more utilitarian and it won’t wear out. Plus it has a little weight to it.

“When starting colts, it releases faster than other conventional hondas.

What’s nice about the metal ones is there’s really nothing to get hung up on.”

He says that some ropers prefer a traditional rope with a different feel.

“A rawhide honda is the closest thing to the feel of a traditional rope, like a reata,”

W ESTER N HO R SEM A N

Grosskopf says. “Like metal, the rawhide has pretty good weight and versatility, too.

I love a braided rawhide honda. They feel great, they throw good, and they also release well.”

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Fifty years ago, Billy Klapper quit working as a cowboy and became a full-time craftsman. Since then, his bits and spurs have become some of the most collectible gear in the West, but that was never his intention.

Story and photography by ROSS HECOX

FTER SLIDING OPEN A METAL DRAWER, Billy Klapper reaches in and pulls out something wrapped inside a plastic shopping bag.

He carefully unwraps it and holds up an old short-shanked bit.

Klapper’s workshop has dozens of bits hanging on its walls, including snaffles, correction bits and long-shanked curbs made by various craftsmen through the years. They share space with old rodeo photos, several sets of deer antlers, two dusty bullwhips and numerous spurs, including a rusty pair missing one rowel.

The bit from the drawer was hidden away for a reason. It’s the first one Klapper ever built.

“It was stolen from me 46 years ago,” Klapper says. “But last year I found it.”

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At age 81, Billy Klapper continues to build bits and spurs in his shop in Pampa, Texas.

During the Western Heritage Classic in Abilene, Texas, someone brought it to Klapper’s booth at the event’s bit and spur show, wondering if Klapper knew its maker, because it had no maker’s marks. Klapper immediately recognized his first creation, and he was able to trade a pair of collectible spurs he made for it.

Built in 1963, the bit has a floating spoon mouthpiece with a brass roller, and silver conchos on the cheekpieces hand-engraved and mounted by legendary craftsman Adolph Bayers.

Bayers, who died in 1978, lived in Gilliland, Texas, and influenced Klapper as he transitioned from

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working cowboy to bit- and spurmaker. Bayers incorporated blacksmithing techniques and made spurs by hammering out one piece of steel—no welding. Klapper has done the same.

“Adolph Bayers was absolutely the greatest ever, in my opinion,” says collector and author J. Martin Basinger, who has written three books on Bayers. “Bill Klapper is right there with Adolph Bayers. There will be no more bit- and spurmakers like them. I know that’s a pretty big statement to make, but I’ve seen so many others who don’t use the same [blacksmithing] methods. I think Bill Klapper and W E STER N H O R SEM A N

Adolph Bayers are the end of really great spurmakers that just get a piece of steel and hammer it out, and turn out a great product.”

Bayers and Klapper also each built a loyal clientele of working cowboys.

“They have always been right in the middle of cowboy country,” says John Welch, who ranches in Colorado and Texas. “The thing that made their gear so usable is the fact that Billy, like Adolph before him, took a lot of input from cowboys.”

Many cutting horse trainers and competitors also use Klapper bits and spurs, claiming that their functionality is unmatched.

M AY 2 01 8

“I think Bill Klapper and Adolph Bayers are the end of really great spurmakers that just get a piece of steel and hammer it out, and turn out a great product.”

—J. MARTIN BASINGER

“To me he has a God-given gift of knowing exactly how to build a bit so that a horse has the right feel with it,” says Oklahoma rancher Shannon Hall, who has won nearly $3.3 million as a cutting horse trainer. “I’ve bought several copies of his bits, made by good bitmakers. They were beautiful and looked just like a Klapper. I mean, looked like they had imitated it perfectly.

But you put it on a horse and it didn’t feel the same. I don’t know if it’s the metal he uses, the weight— I don’t know. I haven’t found one imitation yet that feels like a Klapper does.”

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BILLY KLAPPER WAS 25 YEARS OLD when he built his first bit. Up until then, he had never considered taking up the craft. Born in 1937, he was raised in Lazare, a small community southeast of Childress, Texas. His father farmed and did mechanical work for neighbors. From a young age Klapper was interested in horses and the cowboy way of life.

“I was wanting a horse, and Daddy bought me a dang donkey. That’s what I was riding when I lost that rowel on those spurs,” Klapper says, pointing to the rusty pair hanging on his wall. The donkey liked to buck, opened gates, escaped its pasture and at times made itself a nuisance around town.

By the time Klapper was 11, he was running a tractor and doing farm work for a horse breeder who lived a few miles away. The man eventually bought Klapper his first horse, not long after Klapper sold his donkey to a cattleman who lived down the road.

After high school, Klapper began working cattle on local ranches, and then hired on full-time at the Buckle L near Childress. After two years, he moved on to the Y Ranch near Paducah. During a winter that had been unusually cold and snowy,

Klapper had time to kill so he began working on his first bit.

“The foreman there had messed around some with making spurs,” Klapper recalls. “He was 73 when I went to work for him and had cataracts and had quit [building spurs], but he still had the tools and a forge. I had been wanting some bits, but Bayers was so far behind that you couldn’t hardly get anything.

The foreman said, ‘You can make what you want in that old shop.’ I said, ‘I can’t make that.’ But when it came up a big snow that winter, that’s when I started.”

The design was far from simple, with swivel shanks, a floating spoon and a roller. And though it took weeks to complete, the finished product was a working bit that Klapper used as a cowboy for years.

“That bit shows you what kind of talent that this man has,” Basinger says.

Klapper paid Bayers to put silver on his bit, and then the master craftsman showed him how to mount silver on another bit he’d made. Soon, Klapper started building bits for cowboys he knew, often working until 11 o’clock at night. In 1965, Klapper began working for a ranch located just a few miles from Bayers’ shop in

In 1963, Klapper built his first bit, a short-shanked piece with a floating spoon mouthpiece and roller. Adolph Bayers mounted the silver.

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“I don’t keep my Klapper bridles at the barn. I keep them locked in a safe.

They’re too valuable.”

—SHANNON HALL

The Klapper 27, this one owned

by Shannon Hall, has been Klapper’s most popular bit.

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Gilliland, about 90 miles west of Wichita Falls, Texas. Klapper visited the shop several times, but he was always careful not to trouble Bayers with questions about building bits and spurs. Bayers wasn’t one to share all of his expertise.

“The first time I went down there, I wasn’t there very long when a guy came by and wanted to learn, and Bayers said, ‘I’m not running a school,’ ” Klapper recalls. “So I kept my mouth shut. I didn’t want him mad at me.”

One day, a cowboy asked Klapper to build a pair of spurs, but he had never made any.

“I told him I’d make myself a pair, and if they came out all right I’d make him a pair,” he says. “I’d been visiting Adolph. I never would ask him questions about spurs. I just caught him at different stages in his spur-making. While I was talking, I was studying that spur at the same time.”

The process involved cutting about 5 inches of an axle rod from an old Ford vehicle manufactured before 1949 (the grade of steel Ford used was changed after that, and metal used in Chevrolets was too hard), and then making a lengthwise, 3-inch cut down the center of the rod. Using a forge, hammer and anvil, the cut was widened, and the two split sides shaped into heel bands. The uncut portion became the shank. A machine called a trip hammer handled the heavy work of shaping the steel, saving the blacksmith’s arm and shoulders.

Nowadays, pre-1949 Ford axles are hard to find, but Klapper still starts with one length of steel and shapes it into spurs.

While he was still cowboying, Klapper began building saddle D-rings for Windy Ryon’s saddle shop in Fort Worth (Bayers had grown tired of the job and gladly showed Klapper how to perform that monotonous task), and then Klapper began making spurs for the iconic businessman, earning $20 a pair. Ryon sold them in his store for $45.

M AY 2 01 8

By 1968, Klapper had a wife, two little girls, and a big decision to make.

“It got to a point that I had so many orders, I was going to have to quit [making bits and spurs] or quit cowboying, either one,” he says. “I may have to work a little harder at this, but I thought I could make more money and stay warm in the wintertime. I liked to cowboy, but there’s no money in it, and I had a family. It’s just living from one paycheck to another.”

Klapper set up shop near Childress before relocating to Pampa in 1973. When he started, he could build one pair of spurs in a day.

“That wasn’t no 8-hour day, either,” he says. “I’d be at work at 5 o’clock in the morning, and it would take until 10 or 11 at night to get done.”

for Klapper to build. With an elegant, snake-like curve in its 6½-inch shanks and a solid, high-ported mouthpiece, the “27” became one of Klapper’s most popular bits. Many of them had five to seven silver bars along the shank with a simple wheat pattern engraved on them. It didn’t hurt that one of the most successful trainers was winning cutting horse events with it.

“The first [Klapper] bit I ordered was a 27, because all I ever heard was,

notebooks that sit in a metal desk drawer in his shop. He says he has no idea how many thousands of orders he has filled over the past five decades.

He credits Matlock Rose for opening up a new market for him, and since then he has also built bits and spurs for barrel racers, ropers and other horsemen. The high demand for his work has increased its value considerably. His price for a pair of spurs or a bit starts at a little above $2,100.

CAROL ROSE VIVIDLY REMEMBERS meeting Billy Klapper for the first time. At the time, the American Quarter Horse Association Hall of Fame breeder was married to Matlock Rose, who had won the 1967 National Cutting Horse Association Open World Championship on Peppy San and was well on his way to a hall of fame career as a trainer. Windy Ryon had given Matlock and Klapper still builds Carol each a pair of Klapper spurs out of one spurs as wedding gifts in piece of metal.

1968. A year or two later, Matlock took her to Childress to meet Klapper.

“We walk into this tin building, ‘You’ve got to have a 27,’ ” Hall says. and it was as cold as it possibly could “His number 27 bit, everyone has be,” Carol says. “Billy Klapper was the tried to copy it, and nobody has ever only one in there, a cowboy-looking got it right,” adds Basinger. guy, very short with words, chewing Legendary Arizona horseman Don tobacco in his mouth. I shook his Dodge also ordered a 27, but later hand, and he had the most friendly requested a lighter bit. So Klapper eyes. We became instant friends. made a thinner mouthpiece and “Matlock was talking to him, and attached it to the shanks of a 27. The looking around I was just flabberresult was the “299.” gasted. There wasn’t much equip“I told Don that if it didn’t work, he ment, there was a big work bench, didn’t own it,” Klapper says. “But it and this man by himself was making really worked good.” the most beautiful bits and spurs.”

Klapper has 897 bit patterns and In 1969, Matlock ordered his first 782 spur designs. All of the patterns Klapper bit, mailing a specific design are drawn in a collection of spiral

Collectors and dealers often ask for somewhere around $3,000.

Unfortunately, the high value of Klapper gear makes it susceptible to theft.

“I don’t keep my Klapper bridles at the barn,” Hall says. “I keep them locked in a safe. They’re too valuable.

When I was showing a lot, I always carried my Klapper bit with me. I never left it at the stalls, never left it in the truck. It always went to the motel with me. I’d get in an elevator in a motel and city people would say, ‘Son, you lost your horse.’ And I’d say, ‘Yeah, I didn’t care about him. But I got my bridle.’ ”

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“I think Billy really prefers to make bits and spurs for people that are going to use them, versus those that are wanting to trade them.”

—JOHN WELCH

Cutting and cow horse trainer Boyd Rice and his wife, Halee, have ridden with Klapper spurs for many years.

Horsemen like Hall and cutting trainer Kory Pounds agree that Klapper bits and spurs aren’t in high demand simply because of the name stamped on their mouthpiece or heel band.

“There isn’t any hype behind his gear,” Pounds says. “It has lived up to its reputation.”

“Some of his bits are pretty long shanked, but the mouthpieces on most of them are not real severe on a horse,” Welch adds. “You get instant contact with them. They immediately begin to have an effect, but they don’t have a real abrupt, severe kind of effect. That’s what I like about them.”

Many horsemen say Klapper bits consistently work well with nearly any horse.

“No doubt about it,” says Texas cutting and cow horse trainer Boyd Rice. “I don’t know what the difference is [ from other bits], but they do feel better.

Bayers bits are the same way. I don’t know if it’s the metal or what. They just work.”

Bit- and spurmaker Stewart Williamson agrees there is a mystery to how Klapper bits function.

“I was talking to [fellow craftsman] Wilson Capron about another maker, and how good his spurs felt,” Williamson says. “And Wilson said, ‘Maybe you’re feeling the heart that went into that project.’ I kind of shrugged it off. But now that I’ve done this work a few years, I’ve found that the

Klapper holds one of his bits, which features a classic silver design.

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M AY 2 01 8

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more time you put into these projects, something [intangible] does go into them.

“Billy is starting from raw stock, so he is hands-on through the whole process. Who’s to say that he can’t put ‘something’ into it? I know that sounds mystical and weird, but I’m not going to discount it.”

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SHANNON HALL’S FATHER, Donnie, cowboyed his entire life and consequently didn’t have much material wealth to pass down to his children. However, he was able to give them his most treasured gear.

“My only inheritance from my dad is a pair of gal-leg spurs made by Billy Klapper,” Hall says. “Dad was proud to give those to me.

“When each of my three girls were born, I had a pair of Klapper spurs with their names made for each of them. I bought them diapers and clothes first, but the next thing was a set of Klapper spurs.”

Likewise, Welch and his wife gave each of their three sons a pair of Klapper spurs for Christmas one year. Carol Rose has given Klapper spurs to many friends, family and loyal employees.

John Means, a rancher from Valentine, Texas, has bought Klapper spurs for his wife, three children, their spouses, and two of his three grandchildren (the newborn grandbaby should be receiving a pair soon).

“You can just put a pair of his spurs in your hand and they feel good,” Means says. “They sit good on your boot. They have nice balance and weight.

“We’re ranch people, so we use them. That’s all I use is one pair of his spurs. Billy loves to see a pair of spurs with the rowels worn out. He respects cowboys and he understands them.

“But beyond that, Billy is just a class act. We hunt with him and have a great time just visiting. My friendship with him is paramount.”

Basinger has set up a booth next to Klapper several times at the Western Heritage Classic, and he M AY 2 01 8

W E S T E R N W E S T E R N W E S T E R N

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says the now-81-year-old craftsman draws a crowd of people, many of them bit and spur collectors who admire his work.

“He’s covered up with people there,” Basinger says. “And he’s gotten a reputation as being kind of grumpy. He’s not. It’s just that he’s had people after him all the time to build them something.

“One year there was a young couple that wanted to talk to Bill at Abilene, but they couldn’t get in there. They didn’t want to just push into his booth like everybody else was, so they’d stay there awhile, and then come back later. But they just couldn’t get in to talk to him.

Bill had noticed them. Finally, they came back again and he made a point to talk to them, and he spent all the time they needed. They probably didn’t have much money to buy a pair of Klapper spurs, but I’ll guarantee you that those folks didn’t wait very long for those spurs. That’s the kind of guy Bill Klapper is. Those people were his kind of folks.”

Welch adds that building collectibles or gallery pieces never appealed to Klapper.

“I think Billy really prefers to make bits and spurs for people that are going to use them, versus those that are wanting to trade them,” Welch says.

Welch, Rose, Means, Hall and Basinger have all used their Klapper bits and spurs, and their appreciation for the gear he custom-made for them goes beyond monetary value, craftsmanship or functionality. There are horse stories, fond memories, and important lessons attached to their bits and spurs, and they also represent a connection to a man they know and admire.

Back in his shop in Pampa, Klapper returns his original bit to its hiding place. It’s funny to think that, in a way, a bit without his maker’s mark might be the most valuable Klapper bit of all.

ROSS HECOX is editor in chief of Western Horseman. Send comments on this story to edit@westernhorseman.com.

M AY 2 01 8

Rein Makers Split reins seem simple, but a lot goes into crafting a quality pair. Learn how they’re made and how to select the right ones for you.

By SUSAN MORRISON

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S

TACKS OF LEATHER SPLIT REINS are tossed over a display stand in the tack store, divided by width and length, and attached in pairs.

Despite consistencies in measurement, each pair is slightly different, as shoppers might notice when they pick up a pair.

Some are soaked with oil and some are doubled and stitched. Some have waterloop ends and others have snaps or buckles. Some are lightweight; others have weighted ends. So how do you analyze their quality and choose the pair that’s right for you? >

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IN 1976, WHEN DENNIS MORELAND established his tack business, he made and sold two products: reins and cinches.

With reins draped over one arm and cinches on the other, he took the direct-marketing approach, targeting cutting horse competitors at shows.

Although he’s branched out and now sells a variety of gear, reins have remained a mainstay of his business, Dennis Moreland Tack, based in Weatherford, Texas. And Moreland remains enthusiastic about both making reins and informing Dennis Moreland started making existing and new tack more than customers about 40 years ago, and them. Knowing how reins always have they’re made and been a mainstay of his business. understanding the differences among the myriad selections is the best way, he says, for riders to get what they want and need.

“The first question I get is, ‘What kind of reins do I need?’ But I’ve got to have a little more information,” Moreland says.

“What discipline are they riding? What are they doing with their horses? Are they trail riding or riding a colt? Are they showing a cutter? How big are their hands? We have the rein for everybody, but we just have to get the information to get customers the right rein.”

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Chris Miller of Weaver Leather agrees.

There are essential questions every rider should ask to be sure he or she selects the correct pair of reins, but much of it boils down to personal preference, he says.

“There is no right or wrong answer,” says Miller, who manages Weaver’s equine division in Mount Hope, Ohio. “But I always lean toward directing people to get a heavier rein. You want to have that really good feel in your hand. When you have a heavier rein you’re going to be able W E STER N H O R SEM A N

to feel that there’s a little bit of a dip in your rein, so you can tell you’re pulling or not pulling on your horse.”

Mitch Schutz, president and owner of Schutz Brothers in North Manchester, Indiana, also advises that heavy reins—no matter the width—are more effective than lightweight, thin reins.

“The rein is so important,” he says. “You obviously have your legs, your weight and balance, but you’re in direct contact with that horse’s mouth with the reins. A light M AY 2 01 8

ROSS HECOX

These seemingly simple strips of leather are one of the most essential and useful tools in your tack room. And much of the selection process depends on personal preference. Do you prefer heavy, weighted reins, or those that are lightweight? Do you change out reins from bridle to bridle, or leave them on the same bridle for years? Do you have large hands and find a wide rein comfortable, or is a ½-inch size better suited for your hands?

Choosing the right reins also depends on how you ride and how fast of a signal you want to transfer from your hands to the bit and the horse’s mouth.

To help with the choice, we asked several experts to explain the process of making reins, discuss the differences in leather types and quality, and help untangle the number of options available so you can select the perfect reins.

TOP: COURTESY OF WEAVER LEATHER; BOTTOM: COURTESY OF SCHUTZ BROTHERS

pair of reins won’t have the action to the bit [that you need]. A heavier pair of reins is going to move more in your hand and affect the bit more.”

Those heavy, good-feeling reins start with a high-quality hide, say all three.

MAKING REINS ISN’T AS SIMPLE as cutting strips of leather and soaking them in oil. Instead, it’s a time-consuming process that requires numerous steps in order to get the desired result: a closely M AY 2018

matched pair of reins, cut side by side from the same hide.

Schutz says the process has changed substantially since his father started the company in 1946, cutting reins by hand one at a time. Much of that is due to the quality of the leather today and the ability to cut multiple reins in one pass. A tanned hide—one treated with tannins made naturally from bark or leaves, or a chromium sulfate solution to produce a long-lasting, sturdy leather—is the W ESTER N H O R SEM A N

beginning, and consistency in hides is sought by tack makers.

Many pieces of tack today are made from hides tanned by Hermann Oak Leather, which has been in business since 1881 in St. Louis, Missouri. Its tanning process takes up to three months, and allows the leather to dry but remain flexible.

“In this day and age, tanning leather is as much an art as it is a science,” Schutz says. “Some of the tanneries are technologically ahead of where they used to be, but it’s still an art to make that leather come out the same way every time. And the thing about a harness leather rein is that you’re using the full thickness of the hide. If someone is making a purse or belt, they’re going to take a piece of leather that might have started out thick and split it down to a uniform thickness. For a pair of harness leather reins, we want the full thickness of the hide, because that’s where the body is. It gives the reins strength and feel.”

Moreland says he TOP: Chris Miller, equine division custom-orders hides manager for Weaver from the tannery to Leather, inspects match his exacting some newly made reins on the specifications. Each manufacturing hide yields 12 to 15 floor. Sets are pairs of reins that banded together stay together from throughout the production process. start to finish. He wants hides that BOTTOM: Mitch Schutz (right), measure at least 20 owner and president to 22 ounces at the of Schutz Brothers, butt end (an ounce visits with Shep Hermann of equals 1/64-inch Hermann Oak thickness), which Leather, which always becomes the provides hides for bit end of the reins, Schutz, Moreland and Weaver Leather. and 24 ounces or more at the neck so the ends of the reins will be heavy.

The shoulder area will go down to about 18 ounces.

“That’s where you hold the reins if you’ve got some slack out to your horse,” Moreland explains. “I pay a lot of attention to that weight, too; it’s got to be heavy enough [in the middle] that it doesn’t just go down to nothing. That’s one of my critical measurements.”

Weaver also makes heavy hides a priority to ensure quality and consistency in the finished product.

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CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: Moreland checks a hide for weak or soft spots that might not hold up for reins so he can determine where to cut. A thick, highquality tanned cowhide is the basis for every good pair of reins.

Three pairs are cut at one time, and stay together throughout the process to ensure they are closely matched.

TAKING GOOD CARE HIGH-QUALITY LEATHER REINS come from the tack store ready to use, and require little break-in. They’ve been oiled and saddle soaped, and just need to be attached to a bit. But like any leather product, they need attention to stay in good condition.

“If you’re riding regularly, it’s easy,” Dennis Moreland says. “Every two or three weeks, wipe them down with saddle soap. They’ll stay in great shape.

They won’t need re-oiling if you’re using them. If you’re not using them and they hang in the tack room for a month or six weeks, then they’re going to need some saddle soap and probably some oil. You can even put them around a piece of square tubing to pull them and get some feel back in them.”

In humid climates, leather can develop mold or mildew.

“Here in Indiana, we have so much humidity,” says Mitch Schutz. “You can go into somebody’s tack room after a month in the summer and their reins will be green. They look terrible, but if you just wipe that off with warm water, or warm water and saddle soap, they’ll be like brand new again. Saddle soap is really a good thing, because most of the modern ones have conditioners in them.”

Some people use oil to condition reins, but Schutz says that isn’t usually necessary. And sometimes reins that go unused for a long time are past the point of saving.

“If you have a pair that get really dried out, they’re never going to come back,” he says. “It’s like a piece of meat that dries out. If you bend it, it’s going to break. You just can’t make those fibers soft and supple again.”

The key is pulling that bridle out of the tack room or trailer, and using it for its intended purpose.

“The worst thing you can do to a rein is not use it,” Moreland says. “If you use it on a regular basis, it doesn’t take much maintenance at all.”

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“We use a heavy, U.S. steer hide,” says Miller. “That’s first and foremost. The reins are cut side by side and stay together through the whole process, all the way to the warehouse. That way you get a consistent feel from both reins.”

Schutz says his company takes variations in the hide into consideration.

“We know that the perfect 5⁄8-inch rein needs to be this thickness in the neck and this thickness in the butt [of the hide], so if it gets thinner in one place or another we might make a ¾-inch rein so that lack of thickness is taken up by the extra width,” he says. “We cut all the way down to a 3⁄8-inch rein, which is very narrow and takes a very good piece of leather. We go up to a 1-inch rein.”

Moreland says that with any type of leather, touching it is the easiest way to determine its quality.

“You can feel the density of the leather.

You can run your hand down the rein and see if it’s soft and spongy, or when it gets to where you’re going to hold it, it falls off to nothing,” Moreland says. “Some companies drastically over-oil reins, and that oil will just keep coming out for months. They tend to do that with soft, M AY 2 01 8

ROSS HECOX

Moreland measures a hide to gauge its suitability for reins. The butt end and neck are the thickest parts of the hide.

porous leather, and it really holds a lot of oil. They feel spongy. Reins need to be flexible without being spongy. If they feel like a wet noodle, they’re not any good!”

CUTTING THE REINS is just the beginning. All three makers take multiple steps to ensure the quality of the finished product.

Moreland hand-edges each rein—and points out that each pair has roughly 64 feet of hand-edging—before punching a hole at the tail end of each and tying them together. They are hung on a peg, and a wet piece of denim is pulled over them to smooth out the edges. They are then dipped in neatsfoot oil, and hung to dry for up to 10 hours. After most of the oil is absorbed, Moreland uses liquid saddle soap and goes over the reins, then wipes off any excess with a soft towel.

The reins then go back to the cutting table, where the ends are rounded, a maker’s mark is added and holes are punched for the water-loop ends, which are then attached.

Weaver follows a similar process, and each rein is hand-edged. The company’s oiled reins are its most popular, Miller says, and they are dipped in oil “at a certain temperature for just a certain amount of time.”

“That helps the leather get soft so it feels supple in your hand, but we don’t do it long at all so it’s not too soft and doesn’t affect the quality of the leather,” he says. “Then we ‘butter’ it [with a leather conditioner], and that helps with water resistance. Also, when you’re riding in the heat or sun the reins aren’t going to dry out easily.”

Although Schutz Brothers makes a one-piece rein without a water-loop end, and both Schutz and Weaver make leather split reins with buckle or other ends, each of the manufacturers says the water-loop is the most popular and most practical.

“Before I started making reins, every bridle rein was folded back and two holes were punched in the end of the rein [and tied],” Moreland says. “If your horse stepped on the rein, he usually broke it in the end hole, so you lost 7 or 8 inches.

With the water-loop, if you break a rein at the end you’ve lost an inch, and it can be replaced. Also, that U-shape adds more weight at the bit end.”

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many also ride colts in 7-foot reins so they don’t drag the ground or get stepped on.

Miller says Weaver’s best seller is its working cowboy rein, a heavy harness leather with a weighted tail.

“That’s going to allow the rein to lay nicely over your hand when you’re riding, and allow you to have more feel when you’re communicating with your horse,” he explains. “A heavier rein depicts quality.”

Schutz says his company’s top sellers are harness leather, single-ply reins.

Schutz Brothers has “always catered to the horseman that really enjoys his hobby or profession,” and also sells to many trainers.

“We probably sell more 8-foot reins than 7-foot reins, and I don’t think that’s W E STER N H O R SEM A N

SUSAN MORRISON is managing editor of Western Horseman. Send comments on this story to edit@westernhorseman.com.

M AY 2 01 8

ROSS HECOX

SHOPPING FOR REINS can be overwhelming, but once you determine that the leather is of good quality, it boils down to how they feel in your hand and how you’re going to use them.

“If people will ever feel a good pair of reins, you’ve got ’em. They’re hooked,” Moreland says. “And once they know what a good pair of reins feels like, you aren’t going to pass [a poor-quality pair] off on them.”

Because he has many customers who are cutting horse and reined cow horse trainers and competitors, Moreland finds that he sells a lot of medium- and heavy-weight reins that stay in place better on a fast-moving horse, and that have a fast reaction time when contact is made with the bit. Most customers like 7-foot-9-inch reins to show in, but

common among our competitors,” he says. “Whether they’re cutting horse people or trail people or pleasure horse people, they like really long reins so they can have a big drape.”

The rein’s width can have a big impact on its feel. Schutz says 5⁄8-inch reins outsell every other size.

“The rein needs to be comfortable in your hand,” he says. “If you have a small hand and your reins are ¾- or ⅞-inch wide, they’re not going to be comfortable and you’re never going to get to the point where you feel a connection to your horse.”

Also popular is latigo leather, which is made by a combination of vegetable and chromium tanning, and tends to be more supple than harness leather. Moreland says his latigo-on-latigo stitched reins are some of his best sellers.

“It has a real good feel to it. We make it in a medium weight and a heavy weight,” he says. “The medium weight is more for the reined cow horse people, trail riders TOP: Split reins and ranchers. I come in a variety send a lot of these of widths, weights reins up north. and leather types.

Moreland marks Anywhere it’s cold, his reins with X’s the latigo-on-latigo to indicate their will stay pliable in length. the winter. Harness BOTTOM: Handleather gets stiff in edging gives the the cold.” reins a smooth, finished feel.

But a good old-fashioned pair of harness leather reins, in the appropriate weight and size for the rider, are as essential as a good saddle and quality bit.

“The harness leather rein is such a staple to the industry,” Schutz says.

“That’s one of the things that makes our business difficult: It’s pretty hard to re-invent the rein. It’s been used for hundreds of years. They’ve come out with nylon, polypropylene and biothane, but those don’t have any feel. Harness leather reins aren’t that exciting, but they’re important.

They’re like the bread and milk of our industry.”

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The Rapon

Taps

More than an ornate accessory, tapaderos can enhance your safety, protect you in the saddle, and even improve efficiency when working cattle.

By JENNIFER DENISON

Y

NICOLE POYO

OU’VE SEEN THEM ADORNED WITH SILVER, dangling from an ornate Edward H. Bohlin parade saddle made in the 1930s. You’ve heard them busting through a tangled web of mesquite, cactus or cat’s claw in the Southwest, or softly swishing in cadence with a horse’s longtrot through the golden meadows tucked in the folds of the coastal California hillsides.

Tapaderos were developed to do more than deck out a saddle. They serve functional purposes for working cowboys and trail riders, including providing safety in the saddle; protection from brush, branches and the weather; and even to stop cattle or motivate a sullen colt to move its feet. The word tapadero comes from the Spanish tapadera, which translates to “lid.”

“Tapaderos, besides protecting the foot from the cold, wet cactus spines and brush, are a shield from many a hurt when one rides in close quarters with cattle in a corral,” wrote legendary vaquero Arnold R. Rojas in his book California Vaquero. “Bulls and steers will kick at one’s foot, when one rides too near. A blow on a member, numb with cold, can be agonizing.”

Horsemen have donned protective stirrup coverings for centuries in battle and while driving cattle to northern railheads and ranges. In his research, saddlemaker and gear historian Chuck Stormes of Alberta, Canada, has seen tapaderos on saddles dating back to the early 19th century.

“The ones I’ve seen on early Mexican saddles are small taps, about the size of what we call bulldog tapaderos today, just big enough to cover the stirrup,” says Stormes. “By the 1850s tapaderos had made their way into California, and they were round, maybe 13 or 14 inches in diameter, and tied to the tops of the stirrups. The stirrups were one piece of wood with a small hole you could put your foot into only to the ball of your foot. By the late 1800s, California saddle companies like Main and Winchester Saddlery and Visalia Saddle Company

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Tapaderos have long been used by working cowboys to protect their feet from the brush and elements.

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were making tapaderos with wings up to 30 inches long.”

Today, opinions vary regarding tapaderos, also called “taps” or “toe fenders.” Some cowboys and trail riders find them essential, while others claim they just add weight to a saddle, cause joint pain and get in the way. It comes down to personal preference, with protection, safety and geography being key considerations when selecting the style of taps most appropriate for your saddle.

SAFETY AND SIZING Whether you’re a working cowboy or trail rider, you’re bound to encounter brush and branches that can snag or entangle your stirrups and cause a wreck if your foot gets wedged in a stirrup or your horse spooks.

Tapaderos can prevent this type of accident by keeping underbrush and branches from getting intertwined around your feet or stirrups.

The foot coverings also help keep your feet from slipping through the stirrups. This is especially helpful for children or beginning riders.

“We have taps on [our] little kids’ saddles,” says Sandy Sallee, who owns and operates Mountain Outfitters in Emigrant, Montana, with her husband, Scott, and guides horseback rides and pack trips.

She also takes her grandsons, ages 6 and 8, riding with her into wilderness camps. “[The kids] aren’t real focused on keeping their heels down, and [this way] their feet can’t go through the stirrups and hang up no matter how much they are playing around,” Sallee says.

In West Texas, taps are essential for riding outside in the rough, brushy terrain. Ranchers PeeWee and Kyle Peebles put taps on their three sons’ saddles from the day the boys started riding, and they all continue to use them while day-working on ranches around Alpine, Texas, and in the arena.

“Our [teenage] son, Rance, was in a [youth cow horse] competition not long ago and he, his horse and the cow all went down,” explains PeeWee. “The horse landed on its side and on top of my son’s leg. Had he not

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JENNIFER DENISON

Long, winged taps are popular with vaquero horsemen like Buddy Montes of California. Some cowboys flap them to desensitize a horse or encourage it to move its feet. They also can be used to sort a calf off a cow simply by moving a foot.

M AY 2 01 8

TAPADERO TYPES

MAKERS’ STYLES and construction vary, but most categorize taps into three styles: monkey-face or -nose, bulldog, and eagle-bill or -beak.

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: JENNIFER DENISON; ROSS HECOX; ROSS HECOX

Bulldog: Usually made from sole leather or rawhide, this compact, simple style is built to withstand brushy, boot-eating conditions found in Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. This tap doesn’t use as much material as other styles and usually encases the entire stirrup, including the bottom. It gets its name from its blunt shape, that resembles a bulldog’s face.

“We make our bulldogs out of sole leather and don’t oil them like we do a saddle,” says Gary Dunshee, owner of Big Bend Saddlery in Alpine, Texas. “We don’t want that leather to soften and lose its shape. If the taps lose their shape it’s really hard to ride with them.”

Monkey-face

Monkey-face or -nose: Made from a single piece of heavy leather, such as skirting leather, the front of a monkey-face tap is dished and then comes to a point and looks like a monkey’s face. There are usually two conchos on the face of the tap that look like eyes. Monkeyface taps are usually compact, but are open under the base of the stirrups.

Bulldog “You see them being used about anywhere,” says Dunshee. “But it’s often a buckaroo thing. Usually, they don’t have any wings [that extend below the stirrup and could get caught on sagebrush], but I have patterns from the 1930s, ’40s and ’50s and they have medium wings, long wings, and every which way.”

Dunshee says he oils these leather taps only once so they don’t soften and lose their shape.

Eagle-bill or -beak: Prominent in the California vaquero and buckaroo culture, this style of taps has a long, pointed nose like an eagle’s beak. They are sometimes referred to as “winged” taps, because they are longer and more ornate than the other types.

M AY 2018

Eagle-bill

“The shortest pair I’ve seen is 18 inches and the longest I’ve seen is 28 inches,” says California saddlemaker Ron Butler.

“Most of the ones I make are 20 to 26 inches.”

The taps’ length adds weight to a saddle and requires that the tap be balanced or it will cause the foot to tip forward and can cause joint pain. Longer taps are not preferred in snowy areas, because the tips drag in the snow. They also could get caught on brush and drag over rocks in rough terrain. The tips sometimes have an extra piece of leather sewed to them for reinforcement and to increase durability.

Cowboys use long taps to sort cattle by simply moving their foot, or they can desensitize a horse or get it to move by flapping them or bumping the horse on the shoulder or leg.

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had taps on his saddle, his foot would have been completely crushed.”

Shannon Wrango and her husband, Tuffy Flagler, have made many pairs of hooded children’s stirrups for their company, Flagler and Wrango’s Kansas Saddlery, based in Dawn, Texas. Wrango says it’s important to know your child’s boot size and length when ordering stirrups and tapaderos to ensure a safe, comfortable fit.

“We always made sure the hood depth never allowed the heel to slip past the stirrup tread and into the hood,” she explains. “We also made a bottom on the hood to prevent the front of the foot from falling through the bottom. Lastly, we twisted the [stirrup] leathers so the lil’ riders could keep their stirrups and gain self-confidence.”

Most tapadero makers prefer to make covers for a new pair of stirrups, but customers can send stirrups they have used. When ordering a new pair it’s important for adult riders to also know what type of stirrups they want, and what tread and stirrup width they prefer for a comfortable fit in both stirrups and tapaderos.

“Most people want a pair of taps to fit and feel like they aren’t on their stirrups at all,” says Ty Barton of Ty Barton Saddlery in Winkelman, Arizona. “They want the taps to fit close to their boots, but they don’t want to hear or feel them. They don’t want something too big and cumbersome.”

Makers have a variety of patterns to fit every boot size, from youth to ladies’ and men’s sizes, as well as oversized patterns to fit those who ride in overshoes during the winter.

“I was given a large box of single, old taps made by Visalia Saddle Company that I’ve used to make my patterns,” says saddlemaker Ron Butler of Jamestown, California. “The depth of the nose of those old taps was

TOP: JENNIFER DENISON; BOTTOM: ROSS HECOX

TOP: PeeWee Peebles uses bulldog taps when working on brushy West Texas ranches. “Taps are a must in our country,” he says. “They offer protection from the elements and protection for your boots. It hurts when a cactus goes plumb through your boot toe.”

BOTTOM: Bulldog taps are also used by desert cowboys in Arizona and Hawaii while gathering wild cattle, because they are light, durable and compact enough to maneuver through thick brush.

They come in leather or rawhide.

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8 inches, which is a [men’s] size 8 or 9 boot. I redrew the patterns to fit today’s larger feet, and that required rebalancing and reshaping the taps so they’d hang straight. I had to add weight to the front of the taps for us big-footed modern cowboys, or the base [of the long taps] would tip up.”

SHIELDED FROM THE ELEMENTS Besides looking good on a saddle and enhancing rider safety, tapaderos also protect your boots from being destroyed by brush and your foot from sharp thorns or cactus needles that can pierce a boot. They also can help keep your feet warm and dry in the rain or snow.

Riders in cold, wintery climates sometimes order fleece-lined taps for extra warmth, and that could slightly increase tap size depending on the maker and style. However, some cowboys in Wyoming and Montana claim tapaderos trap the cold air, and they forego them during the winter.

Some also don’t like the extra weight a pair of taps adds to a saddle, which can be anywhere from two pounds for a pair of compact rawhide taps to around 20 pounds for a long pair of leather ones.

Gary Dunshee, owner of Big Bend Saddlery in Alpine, Texas, recalls a cowboy deciding to not use them, but after working cattle in the West Texas brush for a few days he changed his mind.

“There was a cowboy down here who grew up on a ranch below Sierra Blanca, [Texas,] and he came into the shop one day to see how much a pair of ‘toe fenders’ would be, and this was in the 1980s,” recalls Dunshee, who told him they cost about $100. “He said, ‘I’ve had to ride with toe fenders since I was a little kid and never owned a saddle without them, but it makes a saddle heavy and when you unsaddle they hit you in the shins. We’re starting our [seasonal ranch] works in a couple of days and I’m not getting them. I can buy a pair of boots for less than a pair of toe fenders.’

“A couple of weeks later he came back and asked me if I’d make him a pair of toe fenders because his idea of buying new boots didn’t pan out too well. He said by the third day of the works his boots were worn to his socks.”

M AY 2018

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COLT- AND CATTLE-HANDLING TOOL Tapaderos have had more than one use for cowboys, says Stormes.

“The first person to explain the function of tapaderos to me was Canadian sculptor Charlie Beale, who rode with Charles Russell when he was young. He didn’t think a saddle was complete without long tapaderos. He said there were two main uses for long tapaderos. First, if you have to start a young colt by yourself, sometimes the colt freezes up. If you can anticipate that and move your feet, the slapping of the taps will keep the horse moving. You can even go as far as bumping the horse on the front leg with the bottom of the taps.

“When sorting cattle and working the gate, you can sit on your horse quietly and simply move your foot and the tap out to the side to turn back a cow, or sit quietly with your feet by your side to let one pass through the gate. An inexperienced cowboy will wear out his horse sorting cattle, whereas an older, wiser, more experienced cowboy can sit in the gate and just move his foot and save his horse.”

Through the years, Butler made saddles with long tapaderos for wellknown California vaquero Jay Harney, who passed away in June of 2013. Known as an exceptional bridle horseman and buckaroo, Harney frequently used his tapaderos to direct cattle.

“If a cow pressed him a little bit or there were too many calves up front, Jay would flare his long taps like a wild African elephant and everything in the pen would hit the brakes and come to a stop,” recalls Butler. “Some of the calves might also duck back under the cows.”

Butler says he’s had cowboys tell him they like riding with long taps on colts because it keeps them moving, but he’s also had guys tell him they just get in the way. He had a chance to visit with Rojas about tapaderos before Rojas died in 1988.

Rojas rode the ranges of California’s storied Rancho El Tejon during its heyday.

“I asked him, with those long taps and the long stirrups he rode, if a horse took a jump how did he not lose both stirrups and fall on his head? He said, ‘Well, I was never known to be a bronc rider, but the taps and long stirrups sure made it more difficult to ride ’em.”

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ROSS HECOX

“Some guys lean toward rawhide rather than leather because it’s lighter weight yet durable, but I prefer leather because it doesn’t make as much noise as rawhide when going through the brush,” he says.

“Rawhide can make a lot of racket [and scare the cattle].”

Peebles cowboys daily in Barton’s bulldog taps and also prefers leather.

“If you’re working in the rain, rawhide doesn’t hold up as well as leather,” he says. “I also prefer the weight of leather taps.”

Barton now rivets, rather than laces, his taps for durability. In rough brush country, branches can tear up leather laces quickly, compromising the Stirrup covers not only protect a young rider’s feet, but also help keep the feet from slipping through the stirrups. structural integrity of the tapaderos.

Barton grew up on a family ranch in Occasionally, however, he receives a pair New Mexico and never used tapaderos of taps and stirrups back for repair. until he and his father started running “The disadvantage to using taps is cattle in Arizona about 20 years ago. that if a horse falls, your stirrups can’t “Neither my dad nor I had any turn easily,” he explains. “It’s pretty experience working with leather or common to break stirrups this way, so rawhide, but we got a hide and cut out I’ve had to replace some broken stirrups some pieces and played around with and ripped taps. I can usually dampen patterns to make us each a pair of and reshape them, but sometimes tapaderos,” he recalls. “We made bulldog they’re too far gone and I have to make a taps and interlaced them with baling wire new pair.” down the front to hold them together.

Big Bend Saddlery offers rough-out They were crude, but they lasted a couple tapaderos, but Dunshee says those are of years.” more for looks than practicality.

That was the start of Barton’s leather“Rough-out is pretty good for a saddle, crafting business, and today he builds because you can oil your saddle and [the tapaderos for working cowboys throughmoisture] sinks in faster than if it’s out the Southwest and occasionally sends slick-out or tooled,” he explains. “The a pair to the northern states. Specializing same thing happens with water. In the in bulldog tapaderos—compact, no-frills rain, rough-out is going to get wetter taps in the shape of a bulldog’s head—he about 10 times faster than slick-out, and if builds them out of the durable leather you bump your taps into something you used to make boot soles. risk them losing their shape.”

Butler also visited with an old-time cowboy named Archie Winters, whose father and brothers cowboyed in California’s San Joaquin Valley during the 1930s and ’40s.

“He said that when they rodeared cattle—and it was still open range in some places back then—if you had a decent cutting horse and long taps on your saddle [you could work the cattle efficiently],” recalls Butler. “In the early days the cattle were horned and wilder than they are now, and there were a lot more wrecks and the cattle would try to take out a horse. Those guys could fend off aggressive cattle with long taps. I always figured those guys wouldn’t pay for them or add that much weight to their saddles if long taps weren’t a useful tool.”

WORTH THE INVESTMENT Winters’ stories of his cowboy relatives led Butler to look into the types of saddles they might have ridden. He found that in the 1923 Visalia Saddle Company catalog, saddle model 116 with 26-inch tapaderos cost $89 plus shipping. In the same catalog the taps alone cost $14.50, or about 16 percent of the saddle’s total cost.

Today, Stormes says the tapaderos on a custom saddle usually cost an additional 15 to 20 percent of the total cost of the saddle, depending on the maker. Butler’s taps start at $700 for a plain, 26-inch rough-out pair. Barton’s bulldog taps start at $200. High-quality, heavy-duty taps at shops such as Big Bend Saddlery start at about $190 for a basic leather pair and go up to more than $200.

“When we give [more than] $1,000 for a pair of handmade boots and ride through thorny brush all day long, it pays to have taps,” says PeeWee Peebles.

For the Peebles and other ranching families who ride and work cattle every day, tapaderos are more than a tool; they’re a part of the lifestyle.

“We’ve all ridden in oxbows, bell [stirrups], you name it,” says Kyle Peebles.

“But we always seem to resort to taps.

Whether we’re starting colts, riding in the rain, thorny brush country, the show ring or the sorting pen, we tend to do it all with our feet covered!”

JENNIFER DENISON is senior editor of Western Horseman. Send comments on this story to edit@westernhorseman.com.

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Daniel Anderson, Malou Anderson’s brother, rides Bonnet through a herd of cattle in early spring looking for new calves and settling them for the night. Tom Miner Basin ranchers prioritize practices aimed at coexisting with predators and reducing stock depredation, which makes horses like Bonnet essential.

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Mare of the

Tom Miner

Basin

Follow one good ranch mare for a snapshot of life on the Anderson Ranch in southwestern Montana.

Story and photography by LOUISE JOHNS

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“She is a living example of a horse who has learned through experience, miles and work what it means to face the challenges this landscape offers.”

—MALOU ANDERSON

At 22, Bonnet is one of the oldest horses on the Anderson Ranch in Tom Miner Basin, Montana. The horses’ care requires constant vigilance in the face of drifting snow and nights where the temperature often drops below zero.

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ALOU ANDERSON BUNDLES UP FROM HEAD TO TOE in Carhartt overalls, boots, a thick jacket, gloves and a warm winter hat. The wind is blowing, the temperature hovering around minus 10 degrees Fahrenheit, and she is headed out to feed the horses on her family’s ranch in Montana’s Tom Miner Basin. In the pasture across the barnyard from her cabin, the horses hear the four-wheeler start, and all 12 perk their ears, a few giving a little whinny. They know it’s time for their morning bale of alfalfa.

Ranchers in the upper Tom Miner Basin belong to the Tom Miner Basin Association, created in 2015 by Malou and her sister-in-law, Hilary. The association has brought the community together around shared goals of holistic land management practices, in which horses play a vital role. TMBA also offers seminars on ranching topics such as range riding and low-stress livestock handling.

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Malou spreads alfalfa flakes, giving each horse a pile and an extra pat on its fuzzy neck. She reaches her old black and white Paint mare, MJP Bonnies Bonnet, and lingers. On Christmas morning of 1998 a 2-year-old “Bonnet” showed up with a big red bow tied around her neck, a gift for then-16-yearold Malou. Now 22, Bonnet is one of the oldest horses on the Anderson Ranch.

Malou remembers Bonnet in her younger years as Malou picks snow spunky and out of Bonnet’s feet. curious, someSnow tends to ball up and sometimes freeze times to a fault. in horses’ feet in the “Her wild blue winter, so this kind of eyes were even attention is needed on wider when she a regular basis. Many of the Andersons’ was feeling working horses have sassy,” Malou shoes on during the says. “But now, summer when they are ridden more often, as an older mare, but the rest of the year she’s fallen into they are barefoot. place as a confident lady who takes care of her humans and fellow horses.

“She reminds me not to be too hard on myself—that it’s okay to allow for the room to grow into our real selves, just as she did over a 20-plus-year span.”

Bonnet has shared this country with wolves, grizzly bears, coyotes and foxes.

She has carried family members into

Esme and Hasell Anderson-Ramirez pose for a Christmas card photo.

“I clearly remember the first time I brought [Esme] out to the herd,” Malou says. “It was winter and they all ran down the pasture for feeding time, and Bonnet was so aware of my newborn and stayed very close to my side as the rest of the herd ran all about with chaos and excitement.

It’s as though she was saying, ‘Easy boys, easy! We’ve got a baby here!’ ”

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dense bear country to watch over the herd. She has foaled and raised a colt in it. In many ways she raised Malou, carrying the girl as she explored the wilds of the ranch, and then helping her through the trials and tribulations of adolescence and into adult life.

Malou rode the experienced stock horse while working for the nearby B Bar Ranch. Bonnet has miles behind her, is sure-footed in the terrain, and quiet but not dull to her rider’s leg. She knows her job, Malou says, and stays in tune with whoever is riding her.

“She is a living example of a horse who has learned through experience, miles and work what it means to face the challenges this landscape offers,” Malou says. “She’s seen it all on a ranch in the mountains, covered a lot of ground, grown from a mare who didn’t have it all into a mare who absolutely has it all.”

Horses like Bonnet are essential to ranch life in this challenging country. The Anderson Ranch is on the northern border of Yellowstone National Park in the Tom Miner Basin, a high alpine landscape surrounded by rugged peaks. The upper basin is 30 square miles of open sagebrush hillsides prime for summer grazing, aspen groves, dense pine forests and river drainages. Resident ranchers have been joined by a growing number of transient outdoor enthusiasts, conservationists and tourists who frequent the high country surrounding Tom Miner Creek. Home to a resident wolf pack, the basin is one of the most densely populated grizzly bear habitats in North America.

Anderson Ranch is one of five working ranches in the upper portion of the basin that are part of the Tom Miner Basin Association, which puts a priority on practices aimed at coexisting with predators, reducing stock depredation, promoting animal husbandry and mitigating weeds. They implement range riding, which introduces a horseback human presence on the range, and they put up “fladry” fencing (an electric line with red flags hanging from it) in early spring to deter wolves and coyotes from entering the calving pasture. Their low-stress livestock handling techniques include driving cattle daily to reinforce the herd instinct so they are better able to protect themselves if a predator enters the herd.

In Tom Miner the weather fluctuates so wildly that on any given day a person might forget which season it is. Snow might show up in July, and the sun might come out and warm white-blanketed hills in February. Summers are hot and dry, though sometimes refreshed by afternoon thunderstorms

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ABOVE: Malou and her daughters feed the ranch horses.

More than half of the herd is retired, including a few belonging to Malou’s parents, Hannibal and Julie, and three Mustangs approaching their 30s that belonged to Malou’s grandfather Andrew. Horses have worked the Anderson Ranch since Andrew bought it in 1955.

BELOW: “I remember when I got stuck between a sow [bear] and her two cubs while working at the B Bar Ranch when [Bonnet] was still sort of a crazed young filly,” Malou says. “After she came to her senses, we ran out of that gully so fast! Her kind and gentle spirit was always there under the surface, and she came into that more and more as she grew up.”

Now in her older years, Bonnet is the most reliable horse on the ranch. When she sees something, like a wolf or a grizzly bear, “she will perk up and pay attention,” says Malou’s brother Daniel, but she stands her ground.

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ABOVE: In her younger years, Bonnet was Malou’s cow pony for ranch chores at home as well as on neighboring ranches where Malou worked as horse wrangler.

“I consider Bonnet more like a sister than anything.

She’s been my best gal for many years and no doubt one of my greatest companions. I’ve had the privilege to love a lot of amazing horses over the years, and she stands with just a few who have helped shape my life and define what true companionship is for me,” says Malou.

Bonnet is registered with the American Paint Horse Association as MJP Bonnies Bonnet, by Midway Jet Pal and out of Beartooth Bonnie by Roscoe Jack. Bred and raised in the Tom Miner Basin, she is well adapted for her life there.

rolling through. Spring is a cycle of snow, mud and rain, and in the fall the glow of yellow aspen trees mixes with the spirited sound of bugling elk.

Winter comes with a sigh of relief—the grizzly bears sleep and the harsh weather keeps visitors at bay. Through sub-zero temperatures, those out in the elements keep their toes warm by trudging through the knee-deep snow, pulling a sleigh full of hay or carrying loads of firewood. It’s possible to scrape frost off of the inside of windows in the morning, and find a foot of drifted snow across the front door of the cabin.

The only thing predictable in Tom Miner is the wind. Throughout the year, it howls through the basin, rattling the windows and doors. The horses have learned to find shelter in each other, huddled together with their tails to the wind.

“Sometimes you lie in bed and wonder if the walls will cave in or the windows will bust,” laughs Andres Ramirez, Malou’s husband. He had never seen a snowdrift before moving 10 years ago to Tom Miner from San Antonio, Texas.

Malou, Andres and their two girls, 4-year-old Esme and 2-year-old Hasell, live in a cabin just over the fence from Bonnet’s pasture. Across the yard is the stone home where Malou grew up and where her parents, Hannibal and Julie, still live. For years they have split time between the ranch and working throughout Montana and rural Alaska, Hannibal as a school administrator and Julie as a physician’s assistant.

The family has ranched here since 1955, when Malou’s grandfather Andrew bought the land; Malou, now 36, is of the third generation. The lower portion of the ranch is operated by her uncle, Sam Anderson. Malou and Andres, and the rest of the family, manage the upper portion of the ranch, where they lease summer grazing to outside ranches such as the J Bar L, which is managed by Malou’s brother Andrew with help from his wife, Hilary. Malou’s brother Daniel also works the ranch. It’s a family operation where everyone contributes to some degree, whether they live on the ranch or not.

Summer months bring frequent visits from nieces and nephews, cousins and grandchildren, and they all love to ride Bonnet. She shifts easily from alert range riding partner to a horse that Malou trusts to help teach her children to find their seats.

“When they’re around [Bonnet], her eyes soften, her head lowers, and she’s genuinely there for them,” says Malou. “She has cared for my girls and allowed them to find their confidence on her back since before they could walk.”

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Two-year-old Esme takes a turn riding Bonnet after her parents finish moving cattle.

“My girls love Bonnet as almost another parent,” says Malou. “As a mother, it means more than words to have that kind of trust in a horse.”

In her solid, unflappable, dependable manner, Bonnet has been an anchor for the entire Anderson family.

“One of the greatest gifts she’s given me is the chance to see how meaningful she is to others—how children, teens and elders in our family feel when they’re with her,” Malou says.

“It’s mostly been the horses I’ve ridden through these mountains who have helped me realize the importance of my part in protecting these lands for future generations. The animal and horse friends have reminded me time and time again

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to seek compassion and kindness over my own human ego, as well as to be open and curious to the wild world around us.”

No matter how low the temperature or how high the wind, Malou looks forward to feeding the horses.

“Feeding livestock, in the winter especially, brings me joy because these animals have given us so much,” she says, watching Bonnet, who has her nose buried in hay. “They rely on our labor to keep them fed and well cared for as they age. It also helps us all stay close and connected in a place where they can choose to roam far away.

“On the extra-cold nights, I feel relieved when I know at least their bellies are full as they wait for the morning’s first sun rays to fall on their backs.”

LOUISE JOHNS is a freelance photographer and writer based in Montana. Send comments on this story to edit@westernhorseman.com.

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HEADSTALLS AND TACK WORKING TACK CHEVRON HEADSTALL

BY WEAVER LEATHER Handcrafted in the United States, this headstall is made of weighted canyon rose harness leather, dipped in oil,

CRUSADER® PREMIUM FLY MASK • Patented forelock hole keeps hair out of your horse’s eyes • Form fitting micro mesh cap is soft, breathable, and durable • Double dart around eye keeps mesh well away from temples, eyes, and eyelashes • Vinyl coated polyester mesh blocks 70% of damaging UV rays • Double hook-and-loop closures keep mask secure on horse • Optional ear covers and nose protection • 7 sizes available to fit your horse correctly

cashelcompany.com

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dressed with saddle butter and hand-rubbed for exceptional feel, beauty and performance.

Featuring Weaver Leather exclusively designed hardware, the headstall has buffed black hardware with copper and German silver chevron diamondshaped accents.

Finished with Southwest-style heel buckles and loops and water-tie ends, this headstall is designed to hold up to rugged ranch use. Available in a slim and straight browband and sliding and split-ear styles. ridethebrand.com SMX VENTECH WESTERN CINCH BY PROFESSIONAL’S CHOICE

The SMx VenTECH Western Cinch contains exclusive VenTECH Technology, with features including a ventilated, non-slip neoprene liner that conforms to your horse and allows heat and moisture to escape, keeping your horse cool and performing at its best.

This cinch works for trail riding, showing, and every discipline in between. The detachable neoprene liner peels away from the webbing for easy washing. It is available in black or chocolate, in multiple sizes, for $67.95 from Professional’s Choice or your local dealer. profchoice.com

FALLON TAYLOR NEW 2018 COLLECTION

PERFORMANCE HEADGEAR

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SPECIAL PROMOTION

SPLIT REINS

BY SCHUTZ BROTHERS

Featuring a wonderful, mellow “feel,” Schutz Brothers split reins are crafted with exacting attention to detail, cutting skill and elbow grease applied to top-quality harness leather hides uniquely prepared for the company at the Hermann Oak tannery. These split reins have heavy tails and are made in the United States. They are available in sizes from ⅜-inch to 1-inch widths, and lengths from 5 feet long (pony size) to more than 8 feet. Choose from many loop, weight and rein styles. Purchase from Schutz Brothers or at authorized retailers worldwide. schutzbrothers.com.

ANTIQUE COPPER DOTS BROWBAND HEADSTALL FROM MARTIN SADDLERY New from Martin Saddlery, this browband headstall is made of quality chocolate harness leather with antiqued copper dots.

Finished with bit ties and cart buckles, the headstall is priced at $99.99. martinsaddlery.com SOFT 4-PLAIT LOPING HACKAMORE #HV41

BY DENNIS MORELAND TACK

STOP THE STOMP! Use loose-fitting, chemical free during fly season to prevent painful fly bites and reduce stressful stomping.

• Prevents Botflies from laying eggs causing hoof damage • Decreases healing time of abrasions and wounds by allowing air flow

• Easy to attach, comfortable to wear and will not sag due to their unique sewn-in plastic stays

MADE IN

Gray, Orange and Blue colors available in Mini, Yearling, Small, Medium and Large Sizes

Patented Design US6508205B1 Exclusively Distributed By:

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The 4-plait noseband on this bestselling hackamore is braided of 5⁄16-inch nylon solid braid rope and is very soft on your horse’s nose, but it has body and holds its shape. It’s good for everything from trail or pleasure riding to warming up in the show pen. Complete with a handmade Hermann Oak harness leather browband headstall and a fiador, the noseband comes in four colors, and purchase comes with a choice of six different hackamore reins. Price ranges from $199.99 to $304.99. dmtack.com dmtack@vrfmail.com 817-312-5305

M AY 2018

OUTDOOR GEAR MUSKRAT KNIFE BY TIP’S WESTERN & CUSTOM SADDLES

The Muskrat knife features hi-carbon steel blades at 56 Rockwell hardness.

The handle is 3⅞ inches long, with a smooth, yellow Delrin handle. This is Tip’s most popular knife. Made by Moore Maker, it’s ideal for marking calves and it is similar to the company’s old CowCutter knives. Purchase price is $55. tipswestern.com 800-547-8477

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CAPRIOLA FLY ROD AND REEL CASE FROM J.M. CAPRIOLA CO. J.M. Capriola Co. has been handcrafting saddles and buckaroo gear since 1929. Perfect for the outdoor enthusiast, Capriola’s new Fly Rod Cases can be customized by adding a name, brand or logo; and you can add an additional fly holder for your treasured flies. The handle makes it easy to strap the case to your saddle. Each case is handmade by one craftsman from start to finish. Base price is $800.

Purchase at the historic storefront in Elko, Nevada, or order by phone or online. capriolas.com 888-738-5816 or 775-738-5816

HELMETS REBEL SOUTHWEST LOW-PROFILE WESTERN HELMET

BY TROXEL HELMETS Troxel’s Rebel helmet will help you stand out in a crowd, thanks to its bold graphics, while the built-in comfort features include the SureFit Pro system, which adjusts to the shape of your head, keeping you comfortable. Finished with stylish details including a low profile and matte Duratec finish, the fully ventilated and lightweight Rebel keeps you cool with mesh-covered vents and a FlipFold removable washable headliner with Air-Channel technology.

ASTM/SEI-certified and available in sizes small through extra large for $65.95, it can be purchased from a dealer through our website. troxelhelmets.com

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LEATHERWORKING TOOLS BOSS SEWING MACHINE

BY TIPPMANN INDUSTRIAL This handpowered machine can be mounted to any table without needing an electrical hookup, yet it can stitch through ¾-inch of leather, as well as rubber, nylon webbing, cloth, tarp and sail material. It’s ready to sew out of the box, and the simple design is ideal for even the beginner or expert. It includes an owner’s manual and instructional DVD, complete accessory pack as well as tech support. Retailing for $1,495, it can be purchased online or by calling. tippmannindustrial.com 866-286-8046.

Saddle doctor’S repair Manual for WeStern SaddleS Experienced saddlemaker Dick Orent originally wrote this book as a textbook for classes he taught.

Written for readers ages 8 to 80 years old, the book addresses everything from deconstructing a saddle down to the tree, to performing minor repairs and reassembling the saddle. Using this guide, you can repair your own saddles and tack. Cost: $19.99 plus shipping: $4.50 United States, $6 Canada and $8.50 other countries. To contact Orent, write to Saddle Doctor, P.O. Box 281, Uehling, Nebraska, 68063. or send an email. saddle.doc@wildblue.net M AY 2018

W ESTER N H O R SEM A N

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TIPPMANN “THE BOSS”

LEATHER SEWING MACHINE

SPECIAL PROMOTION

Sew: Leather, Nylon, Canvas, Urethane, Plastic, Sheepskin, Etc. SEW WITH EASE!

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QUALITY With over 40 years of manufacturing experience at our roots, our knowledge is in the details.

HAND STITCHER SEWING MACHINE 1(('/( )((' /2&. 6:,7&+ ´ 0D[LPXP VHZLQJ WKLFNQHVV 8S WR VWLWFKHV SHU PLQXWH ´ 2I WKURDW $FFHSWV [ VHULHV QHHGOHV $FFHSWV WKUHDG VL]HV

6(: /($7+(5 83 72 ´ 7+,&.

Made in USA

Tippmann Industrial, Inc Fort Wayne, IN 46806 R5800-286-8046 TippmannIndustrial.com

“Heading home from the river and made a jump up an embankment, heard a "pop!"

Everything felt okay so continued another mile home. That "pop" was the cinch breaking (it was pretty old). Rode the last mile with no cinch. Now I know why it's called a 'balanced' saddle." http://www.fallisbalancedsaddles.com email - johnfallis@fallisbalancedsaddles.com

RideTheBrand .com

17-0837-EQ-DAD

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John M. Fallis Custom Saddles 17402 N. Franklin Blvd.

Nampa, ID 83687 208-461-7252

WESTER N H O R SEM A N

The best-selling Back on Track Therapeutic Mesh Sheet now comes in two new colors: burgundy and hunter green.

It may be helpful for horses that have sore backs, tight muscles, arthritis or stiffness. Wearing the Mesh Sheet following a trail ride or a competition may help your horse recover and prepare for the next day. It’s made with state-of-the-art Welltex material, which can help increase blood circulation.

Price: $199 to $249. backontrackproducts.com EASY BREATHE V-NOSE PADDED MUZZLE BY TOUGH 1 Limit your horse’s overeating with this comfortable muzzle.

Constructed with large holes for easy breathing and a V-nose to keep the muzzle in place, it has easy-clean padding at the crown and under the jaw for comfort.

Completely adjustable at both cheeks, between the jowls, throatlatch and crown, the muzzle includes breakaway “quick grip” closures at the crown and throat for added safety.

Available in six sizes for $31.95 from your local tack store or online anywhere Tough 1 products are sold. tough1.com M AY 2 01 8

er

i ta g e A

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R anc h i n

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SHOOFLY LEGGINS BY STONE MANUFACTURING AND SUPPLY

s s

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S U MMER STAMPEDE 2018

western art & gear show SPONSORED BY

Shoofly Leggins prevent painful bites from biting flies, as well as the laying of botfly eggs. They also reduce stomping, which can lead to hoof damage and leg fatigue. Featuring plastic mesh with sewn-in stays, Shoofly Leggins have heavy-duty Velcro closures, and are finished in felt to eliminate embedded objects. The loose-fitting, chemical-free mesh allows air to circulate, making it ideal to cover wounds. Available in three colors and five sizes from a local retailer or online. stonemfg.net

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ROPES B/B 5 STRAND WAXED COTTON ROPES BY BUCKAROO BUSINESSES

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LIMITED TICKETS AVAILABLE

DINNER PROVIDED music by landon dodd and the dancehall drifters

B/B waxed cotton ropes are 60 feet long and are available in 5⁄16-inch and full ⅜-inch diameters. They are natural white, but the 5⁄16-inch is also available in various colors. The raw cotton ropes are treated in specially formulated wax, giving the ropes more weight and an even feel, and making them weatherproof. A base waxed cotton rope comes with a rawhide burner and M AY 2018

Buy Western Horseman Products at

shop.westernhorseman.com W ESTER N H O R SEM A N

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SPECIAL PROMOTION

costs $76 for 5⁄16-inch or $86 for ⅜-inch.

Find them at Buckaroo Businesses in Billings, Montana. buckaroobusinesses.com 406-252-5000

it leaves your hand. Locate a dealer near you on the website. cactusropes.com/find-a-dealer

AGED NYLON LARIATS BY DOUBLE DIAMOND HALTER CO.

ANGLED OFFSET STIRRUPS

BY DON ORRELL STIRRUPS

With the coming of spring there is a need for lariats to brand calves or work with your horses. Double Diamond Halter Company’s aged nylon lariats have a distinct resemblance to the rawhide reata in terms of life and pliability, but with the strength of nylon. Available in 50-foot and 60-foot lengths, in 5⁄16-inch and ⅜-inch scant and in soft, x-soft, xx-soft, and xxx-ultra soft lays. Choose from a wide selection of hondas, including aluminum, stainless steel and rawhide. doublediamondhalters.com SWAGGER AND THRILLA ROPES FROM CACTUS ROPES

The Swagger and Thrilla ropes are the first Cactus Ropes to ever be twisted around the Cactus CoreTX. The Swagger is a perfectly balanced rope with a ton of tip weight that almost swings itself. The bright green core also adds an unprecedented level of durability and longevity. The Thrilla, with its bright orange core, is a size smaller in diameter than the Swagger and is extremely quick once

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STIRRUPS

Don Orrell Stirrups are best known for their distinctive style, strength and comfort. Just one of many stirrup styles available is the Angled Offset, which combines the best features of both styles for the ultimate in comfortable, pain-free riding. The angle positions your foot horizontal to the ground while the offset helps your heel to drop slightly for those hard stops and slides.

Personalize with engraving and decorative conchos. Check out reviews and purchase online. donorrellstirrups.com NETTLES LEVELER

BY NETTLES STIRRUPS A leveled stirrup helps encourage correct body alignment, balance in the saddle and fewer dropped stirrups.

The patented Nettles Leveler helps correct the angle produced by the twist of a stirrup leather, reducing ankle, knee and hip pain by putting your foot flat on the stirrup tread. The Leveler retails for $80. It can only be added to any Nettles Stirrup. Purchase at tack and Western stores, saddlemakers or through the website. nettles-stirrups.com M AY 2 01 8

RIDING GEAR SQUARE-BOTTOM CHINKS

BY K BAR J LEATHER COMPANY Perfect for ranch riding competition, K Bar J’s squarebottom chinks feature a lighter weight leather and longer fringe length for a nice, long line in the saddle.

Customize your pair with various colors and color combinations, as well as fringe length, leather weight, USA-made Southwestern conchos, pockets and other options. Based in South Dakota, K Bar J also makes working cowboy chaps, outdoor gear and holsters. kbarjleather.com 605-456-1332 ■

G R E E N V I L L E • T E X A S

Matt Gaines is one of the most influential cutting horse trainers of our time with achievements like recently breaking the single season earnings record on the incredible mare Special Nu Baby, having LTE of over $7.5 million, and is currently ranking as the #2 all-time leading NCHA rider. We are proud to build a cutting saddle approved and by trusted by Matt for more than a decade. martinsaddlery.com

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You have been asking for it, and it’s finally here!

Legends Volume 9!

The 9th volume in the series is loaded with stories of some of the most famous stallions and mares that ever lived. The list reads like a Who’s Who in Quarter Horse history.

Be Aech Enterprise Colonels Smoking Gun [Gunner] First Down Dash Genuine Doc Goldseeker Bars

Lynx Melody Photon Playboys Ruby Playgun Red Sonny Dee

Royal Blue Boon Smart Chic Olena Smart Little Lena Streakin Six Tanquery Gin

The Intimidator The Ole Man Topsail Whiz Triple Chick Zips Chocolate Chip

Written by some of the best authors in equine publishing, the stories of these great horses and the people whose lives were changed by them will captivate you.

Legends Volume 9—Product # 106 $24.95 Call toll free: (800) 874-6774 (M-F from 9AM-8PM EST) • Order online at westernhorseman.com

Shopper’s Corral

SHOP UBRAIDIT.COM Supplier to custom braiders, cinch makers & do-it-yourself horse people since 1996.

TechSew 5100 Saddle & Harness Stitcher Starting at $2395

Industrial Sewing Machines www.techsew.com or call toll-free 866-415-8223

JOIN US

HORSESHOER’S SUPPLIES

ANTI-FUNGAL ANTI-BACTERIAL

An anvil designed and built to help make horseshoeing faster and easier, for the professional shoer or the novice. Turning in heels or making square toes can be simple and precise on the side of this specially designed anvil, as pictured. The anvil heel is tapered for shaping up those small shoes.

For shoeing from draft shoes to pony shoes, this 70-lb. anvil handles it all. $320 plus shipping $269.00 $285.00 plus shipping

SCRATCHES • RAIN ROT

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B r y a n N e u b e r t S tBryan r i n g designed C uBryan t tBryan e r /designed Ed g escaled r small cutter/edger. cutter/edger. cutter/edger. string string string scaled scaled small small designed rawhide. rawhide. rawhide. and/or and/or and/or leather leather with with use to use with to leather to use Simple,easy Simple,easy Simple,easy cutter/edger. string Bryan designed small scaled ship. ship. ship. $15 + $15 + $15 $400 + and/or $400 $400 rawhide.

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ALSO: Scraper-style ALSO: Scraper-style rawhide splitter/leveler rawhide splitter/leveler ALSO: Scraper-style rawhide splitter/leveler similar to Fred similar Dorrance's to Fred Dorrance's 1933.

Use 1933. in a1933. vise, UseUse in ainvise, similar to Fred Dorrance's a vise, ALSO: Scraper-style rawhide splitter/leveler easy &Use effective. easy & effective. $200 + $15$200 ship + $15 ship & effective. $200 + $15 ship similar to Fred Dorrance's 1933. in aeasy vise, easy & effective. $200 + $15 ship 150

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Shopper’s Corral

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RidgE K NIF E COMPA N Y

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pineridgeknife@stratanet.com www.pineridgeknife.com

A nightlatch (safety strap) is one of the handiest items you can have on your saddle.

Made to buckle around the swell (pommel), this one has a “handle” that is always at the ready.

The handle can be relaced to fit your hand.

Nightlatch works on swelled or slick fork saddles. $40.00 plus $8.95 shipping 76 y

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Allie Tipton Bear 5/16" Nylon

3/8" Scant Nylon

40 ft. = $43 45 ft. = $46 50 ft. = $51 55 ft. = $56 60 ft. = $61

40 ft. = $45 45 ft. = $48 50 ft. = $53 55 ft. = $58 60 ft. = $63

XXXS – XS – S – SM X-Soft – Soft – Soft-Med

Full Coils, Poly Ropes & Special Lengths on request.

U.S. Shipping: $15 for 1st Rope

Honda Choice: Round Ring, Regular Buck Brannaman Hondas (add $16 (5/16) & $19 (3/8sc)) Send Check, Money Order, MasterCard or Visa

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Woven in Ecuador and finished in the USA with Australian styling for comfort under the sun. Braided kangaroo leather hatband, reinforced crown.

#1649 Darwin Panama $139 Delivered S(6¾-6 ⅞) M(7-7⅛) L(7 ¼-7 ⅜) XL(7 ½-7 ⅝) XXL(7 ¾)

Visit us online or request a catalog

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Ketch Pen

www.ranchershorsesale.com

24th Annual

Ranchers Horse Sale June 2, 2018 - Juntura, Oregon

www.ranchershorsesale.com

PREVIEW: 12:00 MST - SALE 2:00 PM

Contact Ethan Bentz 541.881.6286

24th Annual

Ranchers Horse Sale June 2, 2018 - Juntura, Oregon

PREVIEW: 12:00 MST - SALE 2:00 PM

Breeding Quality AKC Mini Aussies

Contact Ethan Bentz 541.881.6286PIDCOCK/COATES QUARTER HORSES GOOD LOOKIN’ GENTLE, WELL BRED, EASILY TRAINED, POWERFUL, FOUNDATION QUARTER HORSES AT REASONABLE PRICES. We also carry contracts.

Pictured, Described and Easily accessed on our website at: www.quarterhorsesbypidcockcoates.com

Call Robert @ 330.600.2921

“SALE BARN PAGE”

for more info on available puppies M AY 2018

117408 King Tull Rd, Prosser, WA 99350 • 509-788-0972 W ESTER N HO R SEM A N

107

Western Properties 65 Acre Horse Facility 65 65 Acre Acre Horse Horse Facility Facility

Cresson // Johnson & Cresson & Cresson / Johnson Johnson & Parker Counties, Texas: Parker Counties, Texas: Parker Counties, Texas: 30 minutes southwest of Fort Worth on 30 southwest of Worth 30 minutes minutes southwest of Fort Fort Worth on on US 377 on the west side.

US 377 on the west side.

US 377 on the west side.

Rolling to sloping native grasses with Rolling to sloping native grasses with Rolling sloping native with scatteredtotrees.

A neat andgrasses clean facility scattered trees.

A neat and clean facility scattered trees.

A neat and clean sq.ft. facility featuring two nice homes (2771 featuring two nice homes (2771 sq.ft. featuring homes (2771 sq.ft. stone & atwo 2175nice brick), a huge covered stone & a 2175 brick), a huge covered stone a 2175 brick), a huge covered roping&arena, a very nice stucco horse roping arena, aa very nice stucco roping niceswimming stucco horse horse barn, a arena, lap poolvery / horse pool, barn, a lap pool / horse swimming pool, barn, a lap pool / horse swimming pool, covered walker, paddocks, cattle pens, covered walker, paddocks, cattle pens, covered paddocks, a stucco walker, private gated entry.cattle pens, aa stucco stucco private private gated gated entry. entry.

$2,797,500.00 $2,797,500.00 $2,797,500.00

Call Mac A. Coalson, Sr. Broker Call A. Broker Call Mac Mac A. Coalson, Coalson, Sr. Sr. Broker @ 817.925.3333 or @ 817.925.3333 or @ 817.925.3333 or @ McAllen Coalson, Broker McAllen Coalson, Broker @ McAllen Coalson, Broker @ 817.991.8300.

817.991.8300.

817.991.8300.

Classified Ads ALL CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING PAYABLE IN ADVANCE. RATES: $5.50 per word for 1 to 5 insertions; $5.00 per word for 6 to 11 insertions; $4.50 per word for 12 insertions. 10 word minimum.

MasterCard, VISA, AMEX and Discover accepted. DEADLINE for classified advertising is two months prior to publication date. For unspecified designation or doubtful cases, decision of publisher will prevail. Words in name and address must be included when figuring the number of words. Additional charge of $25.00 for handling and mailing instructions for blind box ads. Publisher reserves right to edit all copy.

To place your order contact: Nancy Hughes, Classified Ad Manager; 817-569-7107, nancy.hughes@cowboypublishing.com

136265*XX*55 CANYONVIEW EQUESTRIAN COLLEGE 1.5” WH_DC CMYK 25

136469*XX*54 SANCHEZ BOOT WH_DC BLACK

136300*XX*54 SCHOOL, INC. WH_DC CMYK

J O S E 1.5” 16

GRAHAM 2 ” 25

136349*XX*57 HORSEMENS UNITED ASSOCIATION 2” WH_ DC CMYK 33

2018 Membership Membership Includes Includes 2017

Jenn Sanders Senior Account Executive

940-627-3399

jennifer.sanders@westernhorseman.com

108

EXCELLENCE IN FARRIER EDUCATION - Minnesota School of Horseshoeing; Comprehensive program covering balance, conformation, anatomy, lameness, diseases, and forge work www.mnschoolofhorseshoeing.net; 1-800-257-5850.

FARRIERSCHOOL.NET - Weekend shoeing classes, new online trimming course, Dennis Cappel owner/instructor 314-486-4065.

SADDLE SCHOOL. Instructor - Retired teacher/ administrator. Montana Department of Labor and Industry approved. Approved for Veterans training, Class 1 and Advanced Class 11. 5 weeks. Private rooms. www.montana horseman.com, montanasaddleschool@ yahoo.com, 406-388-1387. Montana Horseman Saddle Building School, Belgrade, Montana.

MONTANA STATE UNIVERSITY FARRIER SCHOOL - Don’t settle for a shorter course, get the foundation you need to succeed! MSU Farrier School is a 16 week program. Limited class size of 12 students. VA approved.

For more information go to http://animal range.montana.edu/horseshoe.html or call 406-994-3722.

PROFESSIONAL PACKING SCHOOLS www.rockcreekpackstation.com, Craig London, DVM, 760-872-8331.

SADDLEMAKING SCHOOL/ TWO WEEK COURSE - $3,950. Dan Hubbard instructor.

See us at Facebook.com/Diamond D Ranch and Saddlery. 816-616-4154.

Advertise in Western Horseman & reach an audience of committed horse owners For more information about Real Estate Advertising call

EQUINE GNATHOLOGICAL TRAINING INSTITUTE: 38 years experience. Practioners in 60 countries. 208-869-1002; dalejeffrey@ equinedentistry.com, www.horsedentistry.info

MNHORSETRAININGACADEMY.COM Best program in the industry, guaranteed!

320-272-4199.

Selling Property?

FOR SALE

Education / Schools

Nancy Hughes

Classified Ad Manager

817-569-7107

nancy.hughes@cowboypublishing.com WESTER N H O R SEM A N

OKLAHOMA STATE HORSESHOEING SCHOOL - ALL instructors AFA Certified Journeyman Farriers, 22 students per class, 6 week Fundamental Farrier Course, Training on live feet only. Approved for VA, Post 9/11, BIA, WIA, WIA 167, and Vocational RehabilitaM AY 2 01 8

tion. Student loans available with approved credit.

Licensed by OBPVS. Accredited by ACCET. www. oklahomastatehorseshoeingschool.com Contact us at 1-800-634-2811 or email at oshs@cableone. net, 4802 Dogwood Rd, Ardmore OK 73401

SOUTHWEST MONTANA HORSE RANCH: Modern home on 20 acres. Sub-irrigated. $265,000. Montana Land Exchange 406276-3565.

OKLAHOMA HORSESHOEING SCHOOL: Licensed by OBPVS. Call 405-288-6085 or 800538-1383. Write: Oklahoma Horseshoeing School, 16446 Horseshoe Circle, Purcell, OK 73080. Website: www.horseshoes.net; “Like” us on Facebook.

Tack / Equipment

MIDWEST EQUINE DENTAL ACADEMY - Four week instruction periods. www.MidwestEquine Dental.org, 989-772-2999.

Employment $500 WEEKLY ASSEMBLING PRODUCTS from home. Free information available. Call 860-357-1599.

Gifts DURR KNIVES - Since 1983. Farriers Rasp Bowie inquiries welcome. www.durrknives.com; text 417-251-7333.

Horses / Stallions TENNESSEE WALKING HORSES: Box Hanging Three Ranch, Dubois, Wyoming. mtnwalker@ wyoming.com. Online catalog - www.mountain bredwalker.com

Leathercraft TANDY LEATHER’S 220 page Buyers’ Guide of leather, saddle and tack hardware, tools and more is FREE. It’s filled with everything for the leather craftsman and useful supplies for the ranch. Tandy Leather, Dept. 18WH, 1900 SE Loop 820, Fort Worth, TX 76140. www.tandyleather.com GET THE WORLD’S PREMIER LEATHERWORKING How-To Publication. www.leather craftersjournal.com, 1-715-362-5393.

Livestock MAMMOTH JACKS for sale. Dean Wingfield, Vernon, CO 80755, 970-332-5471.

Real Estate TEXAS RANCHES For Sale - C21HomeandRanch. com, 1-866-88RANCH. HORSE AND RANCH DIVISION, Coldwell Banker Select. Northern Nevada rural properties. lee.mckinney@cbselectre.com; 775-783-6273.

M AY 2018

EQUINE DENTAL INSTRUMENTS: World Wide Equine, www.horsedentistry.com, www. equinedentistry.com, 208-366-2550, wwequine @horsedentistry.com SUPREME HORSE WALKER - Affordably priced! Lead and Freeflow exercisers. 256-4125782; www.SupremeWalker.com

CHILOQUIN, OREGON - Bring your horses or ride ours. Located between Crater Lake and Upper Klamath Lake. Campgrounds, stalls, guided horse rides. Direct access to National Forest trails. 541887-9013; www.heartlineranch.com

136907*XX*20 LEATHER CRAFTERS AND SADDLERS JOURNAL 2” WH_DC CMYK 26

NATURAL HORSEMANSHIP EQUIPMENT: Marine rope halters, leads, reins. Order at www. horsefriendly.com; call 1-855-467-7337 toll free.

NILEVALLEYSADDLERY.COM - Makers of the Ranch Hand. Dan Flower 308-765-1020.

DWDIXONSADDLES.COM - Ranch saddles that fit. Swell forks to Slick forks. David 573754-2453.

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W ESTER N H O R SEM A N

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109

BACKWARD GLANCE

Shoofly Student IT’S FITTING THAT the first time Western Horseman featured a pencil drawing on the cover it was one drawn by legendary pencil artist Robert “Shoofly” Shufelt. Entitled Polishing the Button, the drawing of Shufelt’s friend Jim Gierhart and his son Will James of Patagonia, Arizona, appeared on the June 1990 cover.

According to Sinclair Browning’s article inside, “Shoofly: an Artist Who Records the Cowboy Way,” Shufelt learned his cowboy authenticity later in life. Living in Chicago, Illinois, he worked as an advertising illustrator drawing “make-believe” horses and cowboys on the side while “commercial work took all [his] time and money.”

In 1976, he and his wife, Julie, threw caution to the wind and moved to Wickenburg, Arizona, so Shufelt could focus

110

on his passion. New friends offered him day work and a chance to learn it fast, and there he found inspiration. His drawings changed from “mountain men and Indians chasing stagecoaches” to real working cowboys. In a last-ditch effort to get his work noticed, he hauled his drawings to an art show in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in 1979, and sold out.

His respected role in Western fine art was set and continues today.

On page 42 of this issue, discover Missouri pencil artist Robyn Cook, who says seeing Shufelt’s art in Western Horseman through the years was her biggest inspiration to start drawing. Shufelt regularly gives Cook feedback on her work.

W E STER N H O R SEM A N

M AY 2 01 8

Advertiser Index All Around Performance Horse Bear, Allie Tipton American Paint Horse Association B&P Neubert Ent., Inc. Back On Track Banixx Buckaroo Businesses Bud’s Horseshoeing Equipment Cactus Ropes Canyonview Equestrian College Catalena Hatters CBY Boots

91 7

JT International Dist. - Tough 1

9

K Bar J Leather Co.

103

80

Kenetrek Boots

106

106

King’s Saddlery

105

71

Kubota Tractors

49

105 45 105 99 109 11 108 60 105

Leather Crafters And Saddlers Journal

109

Manna Pro - Pro Force

29

McCoy’s STI Breakaway Stirrups

98

Monnett Performance Horses

107

Morgan Stock Horse Association

107

Ranching Heritage Assoc. - Summer Stampede 101 National Reining Horse Association

16

Nettles Stirrups

97

2

Nile Valley Saddlery

Farnam - Purishield

5

Pidcock / Coates Quarter Horses

Farnam - Fly Control

38

Pine Ridge Knife Company

Farnam - Fly Control

39

Platinum Performance

Farnam - Easy Pour

59

Platte Valley Saddle Shop

Charlie’s Cowdogs

7

Professional’s Choice

25

Clint Mortenson Silver And Saddles

105

Rancher’s Horse Sale

107

Coffee Run Farms

107

TechSew

105

Farnam - Simplifly

Cowboy Cordage, Inc.

41

Daniel Joseph Lighting

105

Morgan, David

106

Davis Ranch

107

Dennis Moreland Tack

98

Desert Sage Bead Art

96

Diamond-McNabb Ranch Horse Sale

24

Don Orrell Stirrups

92

99 37, 107 106 17 106

RFD-TV - The Cowboy Channel

63

Saddle Doctor

93

Schutz Brothers

92

Shoofly Leggins

96

Smart Pak Equine

33

Spalding Fly Predators

Inside Back Cover

Steve Guitron Custom Rawhide

106 107

Double Diamond Halter Co., Inc.

102

Tammy’s Cowdogs

Double H Ranch Saddle Shop

106

The Right Horse

21

Tim Cox Fine Art

94

Tippmann Industrial Products

94

Tip’s Western & Custom Saddles

95

TLC Animal Nutrition

69

Tom Balding Bits And Spurs

93

Downunder Horsemanship Dry Fork Saddles Cashel Martin Saddlery Equithrive Foxden Equine - Quiessence

103 41 106

Full House Elite Performance Stock Horse Sale 31 Roto Harrow Graham Saddlery

109 99

Graham School, Inc.

108

Hansen Western Gear

106

Resistol

1

High Plains Ranchers Sale

62

High Quality Saddles, LLC

91

Western States Horse Expo

61

Horsemen’s United Association Horseshoer’s Supplies, Inc. J.M. Capriola Co

32 27 100

Coalson Real Estate

108

U-Braid-It Braiding Supply

105

Vetericyn

77

Troxel Helmets

95

Weaver Leather

100

Wedge Loc

109

Western Horseman 21, 23, 24, 35, 51, 60, 62, 69, 77, 81, 88, 89, 101, 104, 108 Windy Ryon Memorial Roping

60

108

WRCA World Championship Ranch Rodeo

79

105

World Equestrian Brands

98

97

Wrangler

Back Cover

John M. Fallis Custom Saddles

100

Wyoming School of Horseshoeing

Jose Sanchez Boots

108

Yeti

M AY 2018

Coming Up

23

Inside Front Cover W ESTER N HO R SEM A N

ROSS HECOX

5 Star Equine ADM Alliance Nutrition, Inc.

Cowboy Rodeo

The Arizona Cowpunchers Reunion celebrates 40 years of wild rides and family values.

Plus:

• World’s Greatest Horseman finalist Justin Lawrence works his reined cow horses on pasture cattle.

• Faith, friendship and talent have kept Brazilian tie-down roper Marcos Costa at the top of his game.

Look for our June issue on newsstands May 15.

111

ON THE EDGE OF COMMON SENSE

by Baxter Black, DVM

Gerald Two Bears and Billy Strike Gerald Two Bears was the foreman of the tribal branding crew.

Lots of Indians who were cowboys came to do what they could do.

Billy Strike was good at roping and his medicine was strong, And he roped ’em automatic ’til misfortune came along!

He roped a good-size heifer calf, but he roped her ’round the neck.

She ran behind his horse’s butt and put ’em both in check!

The rope slid underneath his tail, which spooked the pony some, So, of course, he went to pitching! ’Cause the nylon chafed his bum!

Now like I said, that Billy’s tough and wouldn’t quit his dally, The rope was holding him down tight!

Made every peak and valley!

His horse was snorting up the dirt like he was sweepin’ mines And kickin’ himself sideways like a spring when it unwinds!

Gerald Two Bears ran to Billy who lay still upon the ground.

He said, “Billy, are you alright?”

Billy never made a sound.

Billy blew his left-hand stirrup, so he leaned against the tide, But his saddle got some cockeyed, slippin’ off the other side.

He listened for his breathing but he lay so awfully still.

He said, “Billy, can you hear me?”

Then with superhuman will,

His dally peeled off the horn!

His anchor chain had broke!

Billy flew like Humpty Dumpty and came down and broke his yolk!

Billy’s eyelid raised, his eyeball turned and swiveled toward the source, Gerald leaned up close and whispered, “Billy, can I have your horse?”

112

W E STER N H O R SEM A N

Cowboy humorist BAXTER BLACK, DVM, is based in Benson, Arizona.

M AY 2 01 8

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1-888-282-8042 • ad code y77ed • spalding-labs.com/vhbv3 FLY PREDATORS®, Bye Bye Odor® and The Little Bugs That Do A Big Job are trademarks of Spalding Laboratories, Inc. Copyright© 2018 Spalding Laboratories, Inc., PO Box 10,000, Reno, NV 89510 All rights reserved.

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