All the Creatures

I had a quest today that took me off course and found something quite interesting. Since the weather has been getting cooler, I started my quest for a new horse blanket and of course looked online for a good one on sale. During that process I discovered a book on wholesale horse equipment manufacturers. Since the book didn’t look quite right to me I Googled the ISBN number of the book. My results were quite interesting.

One of the first things I wanted to know about the book, but was unable to find at first, did the book contain wholesalers in the USA or somewhere else? During my ISBN number search, I found that the book, even though it was printed in Ohio, was available in India, England and a few other countries. I only found 2 reviews of the book and one of them mentioned it was a list of manufacturers in India, the other review was that the book was a re-print of a book that was printed years and years ago.

Now I know for a fact that once a book is over 90 years old, it becomes a “public domain” property unless the author’s family had retained right’s to the work. So it is very possible that someone had an original book that was nothing more than a list of wholesale horse equipment manufacturers from the early 1900’s and then re-printed it for sale to today’s market or that the book was indeed a list of saddle makers in India.

Well, that was my interesting side trip for today. Now back to looking at horse blankets.

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It is that time of year when the kids are back in school, the weather is getting cooler and in some places - wetter. The flies around the barn are disappearing and soon it will be winter. It is also a time when horse owners start cleaning up their tack after those last few rides before winter gets here and to start doing more creative indoor activities.

Fall and winter have long been known for the seasons to be crafty. Quilts and blankets are made, cooking becomes an art, but what about us horse owners? Is there anything to keep our hands busy besides surfing the web and texting our riding buddies? There sure is. It is leather and rawhide braiding.

When I was a teenager, long before becoming a horse owner, I bought a book on sale called “How To Make Cowboy Horse Gear,” by Bruce Grant. I still have that book and remembered how I made a few horse items, just like in the pictures in the book. Of course the pictures were taken in the 1950’s or maybe earlier, so it was a bit dated. Now there is another rawhide braider that has a book published and his name is Robert L. Woolery and his book, “Braiding Rawhide Horse Tack.” was published in 2007.

I have not had a chance to check out this book, but since it was published more recently than Grant’s book, I would assume that if there are any photos of Woolery’s finished items in there, they would be more modern looking. Grant’s book on the other hand takes you back to the days when cowboys still took care of the ranch and herding was done without ATV’s. A lot of old fashioned cowboy stories in that book too.

So while you are sitting in your abode on a long winter’s day, think about making something for your horse.

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I just got back from my local hardware/farm supply and horse tack store. The place is huge, bigger than our local Home Depot. I usually like to take a look around the horse section even if I am there for something other than animal related shopping. They normally have 30-40 top name brands of saddles at any one time. The saddle section use to be so packed with saddles that I would have needed a slimming pill just to squeeze down the aisle. I use to love to dream about owning one of those $4K western show saddles with all the silver, but I just wouldn’t use it that much for shows anymore. This visit was different….very different. The area where the saddles were normally kept had dog treat and small livestock feed and treats. They had moved what saddles they had to a far corner. I could only see 12 saddles total in the entire store.

At the checkout stand I asked what happened to all the saddles. I was told that they were making drastic cutbacks to selling saddles and they would not be getting many in anymore. The local demand for horse related equipment has plummeted. More people than every before are getting rid of their horses.

That news, of a still falling horse market does not sound as if retail stores have a good outlook for the holiday season ahead. I hope your area is doing better economically than mine.

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