Tour of Horsewright Knives at the Pro Am

Horsewright

Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
Joined
Oct 4, 2011
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So this past weekend, (actually Thursday through Sunday) was the Brannaman Pro Am in Santa Ynez California. Grab your coffee, saddle up and ride along at the largest and richest ranch roping ever. You'll see lots of traditional knives being carried by lots of traditional minded folks at an event that showcases traditional ranch roping. Come along on a tour of Horsewright knives seen at this event.

My wife Nichole and I, with the help of our good friends Stan and Janine, set up our booth on Thursday morning. Our ranching partner Steve was there too and always helps as well. We'd got there on Wed and set up camp but couldn't set up the booth till Thursday morning. It was great timing because we were able to set up quickly and easily without having to work around any of the other vendors. We were set up and open for business before any of the other vendors started setting up. The Pro Am is our big show of the year and there were a lot of 12 and 18 hour days getting product made to sell. What was different this time around is that Nichole and Janine were competing too. I've competed 3 out of the previous 4 years that they'd had the event but now ol Dave was gonna run the store. Ya know what, the world didn't shift off its axis or nuthing. I got er done. Course I was coach too and been helping em get ready.

Across the aisle our good friend and hatmaker, Kevin from KJ Murphy's Custom Hats was setting up. This was Bryce his assistant, he's carrying one of my Cowboy knives with an elk handle and a Horizontal cross draw sheath. He's got it on one of our water buffalo leather belts too:

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Friday morning was the real kick off. Half of the 155 teams go on Friday and half go on Sat. They'd called for all the contestants to come on into the arena as they were going to have Adrian The Buckaroo Girl sing the National Anthem:

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Thats Nichole in the green wool vest in the center of the pic. Janine is to the left of her and the tall guy in the tan vest to the right is our saddle maker John Willasma. Ya wanna see somebody that can do something with a dead cow. Wow. We've had 4 or 5 of his saddles and both are currently riding one of his. The rest of Fridays' competitors came in and I probably don't have to mention why the hats are removed and they are facing the flag up on the hill, Adrian can bust that one out:

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Ya know I met and sold things to folks at this event from Australia (my first two knife sales were to a competitor that had flown in from Australia and borrowed a horse), The Czech Republic, Germany, Spain, Italy, France, Switzerland and New Zealand. It was interesting, when the Anthem was sung, they all stood, faced the flag and took their hats off. Makes a guy go hmm?

Anyhoo Janine on her little mustang Mannalito coming into the arena for their run followed by Nichole on her mare Josie:

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Folks often say the Nichole and Josie have the same hair stylist. Kinda looks that way. The rules require that each member of the three man team head the cow in one of their three goes. Nichole was gonna go first. Then the cow can be brought out of the herd and heeled. The other members of the team must keep the cattle on the herd side of that chalk line until the selected one is headed. Point deduction if they don't. Also point deduction if they run their horse prior to the cow being headed and for any missed shots. There are many different type of shots in ranch roping and each is worth a certain score based on the degree of difficulty. Six points for the easiest and twelve for the hardest. Ya have a four minute time limit but there are extra points allocated for getting er done quicker on a sliding scale based on how fast ya get er done. Each two man team is assigned a "pro" from a 20 man pool. This is literally done by drawing names out of a hat. The girls got Woody Harney as their pro a very well known cowboy from Nevada. All the cows are wearing numbers and the team is assigned a specific cow to rope. Woody and Nichole looking for their number. Time starts when someone crosses that chalk line. Nichole was gonna head first:

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There it is:

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Dang it! The loop settled behind the the front legs. Ya can see Nichole jerking her slack but she was half a millisecond late. This is called belly roping or roping em deep. Its not a legal head catch and has to be cleaned up before they proceed.

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Course as luck would have it, this turned out to be one of those times when it wasn't very easy to clean up. Got it off and over the back end and then it hung up on a hind foot. Had to clean that up too. Time! Just wasn't enough of it and the girls got a no time on their first run. Still they got over the jitters a little. If ya look close ya can see both are wearing Horsewright knives over their left front pocket. But we don't just make knives. We made the charmitas (leggings) they are wearing, spur straps, headstalls (what holds the bit in the horses' mouth), belts, horn wraps on the saddles and the wool vest Nichole is wearing too:

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Meanwhile back at the ranch oops, I mean store, people are shopping. This guy already had one of my knives:

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And this one:

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So I started taking pics. One of my Cowboy models with cocobolo:

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Janine and Nichole came back to the booth to check on me and make sure I hadn't screwed things up too badly. Their second and third goes wouldn't be for another 7 hours or so, so they had plenty of time to relax for a bit. Janine's California Coyote, carved pancake sheath and water buffalo belt with contrasting stitching of blue and florescent green:

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This lady likes to carry behind her back and I saw several folks during the weekend carrying that way. She has a Coyote with elk:

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Sold this one there:

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So about 6:30 or so they go for their second and third goes. They are literally the last team of the day. Now they are really jumpy, first its very cold with a 30 mph wind blowing (that kind of wind affects your shots for sure) but 2 runs prior to them going, a guy got his right thumb cut off just in front of them. I don't know the details as I was still in the store but this accident can happen if ya forget to keep your thumb up when dallying (wrapping the rope around the saddle horn). Dally with your thumb down and it can be caught between the rope and the wood of the saddle horn and ya got a cow going one way fast and a horse going another way and bad things can happen. So they were pretty shaken by that. Now they are in again. Its actually much darker than the pics appear. I'm pushing the ISO on the camera at 800 just so I can take a shot.

Bam! Got er headed.

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Nichole brings the cow out and Woody got er heeled. Janine can't do the groundwork, so Stan her husband ran in to do it. Janine had injured a knee pretty badly a couple of weeks prior and had trouble getting up and down off the horse. So somebody else can do the groundwork for your team but there is a 15 second penalty for that.

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Time ends when the head rope is taken off and put on both front feet and both hind feet are in the heel loop and Stan stands up. The flagger is just dropping the flag to signal they are done to the timers. Ol Josie sure knows her job. See how she's backing up....she's keeping tension on the rope. Nichole slides the rope a few inches around the saddle horn so the cow isn't hit with a big jerk when pulled tight. Keeping the front feet and the back feet off the ground prevents the cow from struggling.

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So thats the 20 pics I can put in a post. I will add more later as I can. Please follow along as we go and check back again. Lots more to do. Questions and comments always welcome.
 
Great stuff Dave, a real treat as always my friend, looking forward to the rest of your tale :) :thumbsup:
 
Looks like tons of fun, Dave ! I grew up riding horses ( I am from Kentucky ) but I never did any roping.
The quality of your knives and Leather shows through. I am proud of my Tapadero.
 
Thanks for sharing all that with us. I enjoyed seeing the knives and the sheaths also!
 
I really enjoyed this story and pics---thanks for posting it. And those are some sleek and handsome knives as well. :thumbsup:

Andrew
 
Love my horses ... Id sell off both my trucks before I'd give them up.

I don't usually go to big meets just meet small groups of friends to ride snd enjoy goid company. Looks like you had alot of that.

I showed some friends pictures you have posted and won't be surprised if they end up getting a knife from you in the future ... they really like how your sheaths work and for carry horseback they are definately some of the best I've seen.
 
I always enjoy your posts, Dave. I think it’s good to expose people to aspects of the livestock industry that they wouldn’t otherwise be exposed to. Especially when it involves good photography.

Your post also brings back memories of Santa Ynez. It’s a beautiful area. I worked on a ranch there when I was in college. When I went to the far back end of the ranch, I could hear the train whistle coming from Michael Jackson’s ranch. Kind of weird.
 
Dave, this was a great read, and I enjoyed seeing all the photos. I have to say, between the ranching and the knife-making and the leather work and everything else you do, I'm always amazed that you find the time to make such wonderful, detailed posts to share with all of us! Thanks!
 
I really enjoy your posts, Dave, and you keep raising the bar in quality, my friend! Thanks for taking the time to bring us along with you.:thumbsup::cool:

And I don't need to compliment the impeccable quality of your blades and leatherwork, as they speak for themselves. It must be really gratifying to see so many people who really use their knives and gear, walking around with your work on them.:cool::)

I wonder if I could get a pro tip from you? I noticed that you use horn for some of your handles - not sure if it's sheep or buff, from the pics. And I like how you commit to full after sales maintenance on your gear. How do you treat the horn, and what do you recommend for maintenance? How does it hold up in long term use compared to your other handles?:)
 
Impressive! For a while I was in California... Great reading and pictures. Josie the mare 's hue is outstanding!
 
Dave,
Thanks for another good (and well illustrated) read -- and thanks in general for being one of the most helpful guys on this site.
The leather-working knowledge you have shared on other posts have been a terrific aid to my sheath-building efforts and the pics of your beautiful work with knives & sheaths have encouraged me to shoot for a high standard.
 
Thanks guys! I appreciate the kind words.

Get to a little more today Jack.

Thanks hamsco sure glad ya like that knife. Sold all the Tapaderos and Sonoran Belt Knives (same knife just in stainless instead of damascus) that I took over there.

Good talking with ya Scott.

Thanks JJ. Yeah my sheath designs are all about riding. That's why our slogan is "Designed from the saddle, for the saddle." Years ago I watched Nichole ride this bronc for a gal one time. This horse was getting with it and I saw her knife go flying across the arena. Thought to myself that could be a bad deal to come off a horse in a wreck and land on your knife. So been working on that ever since.

Grew up some in Santa Maria myself Sacto. Went to Hancock and then Fresno State. Ya go to Cal Poly?

Cambertree I used lots of water buffalo horn for a long time. Enough that I was importing it directly from India. I kinda backed off. Had lots of problems with it wanting to go back to being curved. Nowadays I will only use it with Loveless bolts or some other type of mechanical fastener like Corby bolts. Using these I've had very good success. I do use a lot of sheephorn. I've never had as much problem with sheephorn pulling away. I really don't do anything special to it or other horns except shaping, sanding and polishing. Sometimes with years of use it'll get a little dull and a guy could rebuff but that's about it.
 
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A lot of fine horses and horsemanship there:thumbsup:

Some more than cool knives too :D Notably that long slim one with the blue burl handle:cool:

Regards, Will
 
Good to see all of your hard work being put to use Dave! It would be a shame for all of your knives to sit in a display or on a dresser. I love your sheath work!
 
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