Horsey Gravitations

The picture of my grand father, decked out in cowboy gear of the 1920’s, was my only validation, for being a horse crazy girl, while pretty much everybody else in my family was not! I tell people I ‘grew up’ around horses, which was true but did not mean that I was around my grandpa or his ranch; both were gone before I was born. More accurately it meant I did what every truly horse crazy girl does, and that is gravitate to wherever you can, to be as near as you can, to anything that was remotely equine related. There was going to pony ring rides just to wish and watch. Reading every book ever written by Marguerite Henry and Walter Farley. Using hard earned allowance money to buy “Western Horseman” magazine because of the pictures; attend Pasadena Rose Bowl parade to count all the horses in it; watch livestock auctions while I sat on my hands; feeding thoroughbreds at Portland Meadows race track before going to school; trail guiding for free at a Tacoma riding stable of rental horses; making school friends who were also horse owners that promised I could ride their horse, as soon as I finished cleaning out their stall, and the most telling experience of horse crazy girls is, 'making friends' with any horse alone in a pasture and standing near the fence. My head and heart have lied in Horseland as long as I can remember.

By the time I was into my 30’s I was living in Fairbanks, Alaska with two young daughters. This meant a life style which was more limited than ever for horse related experiences. Here I was, a very responsible adult, but I covertly remained a card carrying member of the ‘Horse Crazy Girl’ club and tried to plot a budget, that included horse feed.

There’s a saying that ; “Horse Crazy Girls never die, they are just between their last horse and their next horse.” Early one Spring I attended a women’s conference at nearby ‘Camp Li-Wa and had no idea that from there my next horse was on the near horizon!

After the conference at Camp Li-Wa, I conversed with the directors about the place, since I had lived in Fairbabanks but had never heard of it before the conference. From our talks, I learned that it was fairly new to the public, and they had available several different job openings! The wrangler position was already filled, so they asked me to do their baking for the coming summer season. It sounded fun to me, as a second choice to wrangling- as my girls were small and I could have them close by my work. That way we would all eat well, and get to enjoy a fun summer of the benefits of living, and working in a camp.

I certainly did enjoy myself, and was comfortable in my job, but still many a day of that summer I would wax winsome as the head wrangler would come into view from the kitchen window, riding acrost the grass fields with a bunch of camp kids on horseback trailing behind.

It was only a few weeks later in the summer, that head wrangler Bruce, gave notice he would be moving to a northern village in Alaska, but he was open to training me as his replacement! Hallelujah! I’d be back in the saddle again’, and might have the chance to teach my daughters to ride besides! (I cogitated that maybe one them would want to join the special girls club I belonged to!)

The year I actually began wrangling for the camp I found the job incorporated a whole lot more, than just the care, feeding, and riding of horses all day. As the camp director put it, “this is not nearly as much of a horse job, as it is a ‘people’ job! “ Added to the mix of my duties, I was to teach an equine related, craft class for interested campers. I have taught school and have always been artsy-crafty, so I thought I could start with the an old interest I had of what's known as "hitching horsehair". This is a technique of handmaking beautiful and durable horse tack and cowboy belts and hatbands, using mostly horsehair. Years before, when I first saw some examples, I thought it looked dauntingly labor intensive, and thought there was never a chance I would learn the skill. Besides, the only source of hitched horsehair, was in museums, or a few things were available from prisons stores in Montana. But when a friend came back from her trip to Spokane, she brought back for me, a self teaching book on the subject, by author Shoni Maulding. I forgot entirely whatever my daunts were, and decided, that not only would I learn to hitch horsehair, I would teach it at the same time to the campers! What the heck! We had 22 horses,who at some time or another, going to need some main and tail trims. Only some very basic tools were needed consisting of small sharp scissors and a dowel to do it on! Simple!

Okay … not that simple… how do I tell myself these things?!

Very briefly below is an overview of the whole process of hitching horsehair, in 4 steps.

Step 1: Collect horsehair.

Firs, I knew I needed the small sharp sciorrs, easily found in sewing stores. The idea of trying to place a child behind a live horse, give them some round nose, school scissors, then have them sorta gnaw away on a hank of tail hair for who knows how long? ...hmmm...NOPE! Safely collect the hair myself, while on my free time, was the idea I went with.

Step 2: Wash, dry, match up colors and lengths, and tie into bundles.

Okay, maybe some of this is sounding a little beyond the scope of your usual 8-12 year old, but what kid doesn’t want a summer project that includes water? Another step, that was primarily accomplished with my help.

Step3: Making ‘pulls or ‘strings’.

Now pull out of the bundles only 10-15 hairs, depending on their thickness, and put an overhand knot in one end. While holding the knot with your right hand, separate the hairs into 2 smaller groups, and hold them above your knee to keep them separate. Holding both of the smaller groups loosely with your left hand, your right hand simultaneously pulls upward and twisting allows them two to twist together making a single string. Again use an overhand knot at the opposite end to secure all ends together. You are indeed entitled to a bit of euphoria for accomplishing this step, but I am afraid, you should be warned, that whatever you have decided to make, you will need a bazillion of these to make it, so sit down, put on something you like to listen to, and be committed! Of course if you are thinking you are teaching this to camp kids do be warned they are notoriously short on these type of long term commitments!

Step 4: Start hitching

Now the hard part begins. From here your job is to attach two strands of the carpet thread to the dowel, and follow your carefully graphed pattern of using the pulls you just made, to tie onto the strands; open half hitches, closed half hitches, standing strings, dropping strings, trimming bits as you go, adding pulls…….etc etc etc…..

….and there you go! In the approximate time it takes for asparagus to grow from seed, you might have a tassel key fob done!

Does this all sound daunting to you dear reader?

To be honest I miraculously came to my senses and decided to change my subject of camp "craft", to the less daunting camp skill of, "how to play horseshoes"! I did go on to forge ahead in my education and practice of this craft. Horse hair hitching continues to stand out in my heart and head for it’s timeless beauty and function for horses and people both. It is part of the story of western American history, and it is an opportunity to use some simple tools and easily acquired inexpensive materials, to construct a challenging and satisfying product.

The legacy of this craft, is close to going by the wayside, like many things that are done by hand these days. So I will continue to practice it, in hopes of circumventing that. I have hopes, I will be able to teach at least one other person how to hitch horsehair.

But the most important reason for to continue to do hitching, is because someone I love asked me to. May you dear reader, enjoy that inspiration in whatever you decide to do.

Happy Trails!

PEIGI M

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I demonstrate these steps in 2 You Tube videos, the first is a link found here:

https://youtu.be/yGwNqxjRt4Y