Inspiration comes from many sources. It’s getting harder to keep track of where all the ideas come from. This year’s TCAA saddle is well under way and as I’m ‘stealing’ time from other projects to get it completed by the early August deadline. I’ve had this Al Tietjen stainless steel cheek bit (that I […]

It was January 2013 in Mesa, Arizona at the High Noon Show and Sale where we hosted the first annual TCAA Emerging Artist Competition. The participants wanted a thorough critique of the work they had on display. My colleague Rick Bean and I obliged. It turned into a no-holds-barred process that the saddlemakers in attendance […]

Over the years I’ve been very fortunate to have accumulated many great customers. Art Nicholas and the Wagonhound Ranch has been one of them. This world class ranch is located near Douglas, Wyoming and features top shelf big game hunts, horses, and cattle. Art and his staff have been working toward a production sale for […]

Cal DeCora was one of my first saddle customers after I moved to Salmon, Idaho twenty-nine years ago (1 April 1984). Recently he brought the last two saddles I made him in to be cleaned and oiled. One of the benefits of longevity in the saddle biz is that you get to see how saddles […]

I finally replaced my broken ax handle so that I could split some kindling for my stove in the shop. Working on that ax head reminded me of an analogy that I used in a speech delivered to a Toastmasters International group some twenty years ago. When you’re getting started, sometimes you pick up your […]

One rainy day during elk season, TJ and I were driving on the creek road above our house. We rounded a curve not far up the road and found ourselves in a front row seat with two bighorn rams fighting. They were no more than twenty feet off the road. Fatigued from hours of struggle, […]

The two young school girls persisted in drawing the horse’s ears like an upside down W. They were then shown how to look at the picture they were trying to draw rather than looking inside their own mind at how they thought those ears should be. “See the angles of the horse’s ears?” I encouraged. After […]

This browband headstall was made for a dear friend and customer. I just love doing this kind of work…it is challenging and rewarding at the same time. It is entirely hand sewn with waxed linen at eight stitches per inch. I finished the edges with a hot beeswax technique that has become a standard for […]

It’s not often you make a saddle like this one for a ranch manager to use, but as a saddlemaker, this is as good as it gets. This saddle is at the height of what I do in my vocation: Artistic expression blended with the best functional aspects I can muster as well. There is […]