So I guess I should wax eloquent about the brevity of life, what with another year passing by with blinding speed. But there’s a good chance that the only wax the folks I know (and who know me) are concerned about is the wax build-up in my ears. Nevertheless, there are enough of you that […]
November Saddlemaking Clinic
I usually host a saddle construction clinic in early November. This year Amelie Zunk from Vancouver, BC; Cary Coleman from Payson, AZ; and Cache Morris from Elk Bend, Idaho came for a fun time talking about saddles, leather, and horses. I’ve come to enjoy teaching a great deal and it’s great to see folks take […]
Yellow Dog
Ok, so I voted today and this is as close to realpolitick as you’ll probably get from me on here. As I entered the polling place, I look back and see my good bird dog watching my every move and waiting patiently in the back of the pickup. I’m thinking I’d rather vote for my […]
Pencil, Paper, Leather
Kangaroo
While still in saddle school in the early eighties, I began studying what was going on out there in the real world of custom saddles. One of the little things I picked up on was the way Capriola’s (Elko, NV) was lacing their back jockeys together. It looked so clean, so refined…and it was different […]
Water
I like to listen to the rhythmic tap, tap, tap of the sprinklers in the pasture and watch their spray break up and cover the forty foot orb each bird is responsible for. You’d think I’d hate sprinkler pipe. My first job at age twelve was moving three inch diameter hand lines in the fields […]
The Founding
Those who keep up with what I’ve got going know that I am a founding member of the Traditional Cowboy Arts Association. A group of us got together in 1998 and came up with this idea that seems to have taken on a life of its own. Like any journey in life, its had its […]
Obsession
I just shipped out my 2014 TCAA saddle to the National Cowboy Museum yesterday. It’s always a good feeling to get a demanding project finished and off the stand. The last sixteen summers have been consumed with doing work for our show that opens in October. I say ‘summers’ but actually most of the work […]
The Dirty Life and a Man with a Hoe
Contrary to popular belief, I don’t live, breathe, and eat leather…at least not all the time. One of the many small things I do on a regular basis is a little time with dirt under my fingernails. It’s a way of keeping grounded. As Malcolm Gladwell once said “we cannot separate ourselves from where we’ve […]
TCAA Time
This spring and summer seems like the busiest time this year. Just one of the projects I’m working on is this year’s TCAA saddle. In my visits with my co-conspirator Scott Hardy we came up with this idea of a dyed border that would frame up the saddle. It is always an anxious process when […]
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