Read it Here - Gary Stark Training Stables

Marty Marten: How Ponying Benefits You and Your Horse
on
the
Handling
Snow, Ice,
Hungry Cows
and a Team
of Horses
[Page 58]
Comrade Cowboy
A Rancher’s Venture
into Russia Continues
[Part 3]
Riding Long Yearlings
Harmful or Helpful?
Tips to Tune Up
Your Heading Horse
4
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Cowboy
Christmas Eve
by Jack Sorenson
$4.99
DECEMBER 2011
WESTERNHORSEMAN.COM
10/20/11 2:47:11 PM
CowboyStyle
● craftsmen
Gary Stark
Trained by a Montana State Prison inmate,
this horsehair hitcher has taken a traditional
cowboy craft and elevated it to a form of fine art.
Story by ANDREA SCOTT • Photography by DARRELL DODDS
T
here are good horsehair hitchers making belts, headstalls and
other gear, but Gary Stark is one of only a few who has hitched a horsehair
reata. Embedded in the rope coils are brilliant color patterns of red, orange,
blue, turquoise and yellow that form a 34-foot-long story containing American
flags, black widow spiders (because he hates them), steer heads, snakes, birds and other
images that spring from his heart.
MAKER’S MARKS
Craftsman: Gary Stark
Shop: Caldwell, Idaho
Specialty: Horsehair hitching, working tack
and decorative belts
Fact: Gary once mentored a legally blind
woman who now hitches beautiful horsehair
jewelry.
Base prices: Snaffle-bit headstalls with silver,
$750; old-style headstalls with reins and
romal, $10,000; reversible belts, $700
Contact: 208-850-2772; wishiweraranch.com
“I would like to throw out a challenge,”
Stark says. “If someone has done anything
like this, I would like to see it.”
What may seem like a boastful dare at
first is not. The statement is meant to spur
conversation and to invite hitchers to exchange information.
“The reason I welcome the challenge is
because I would like to see other people’s
work,” Stark explains. “There are some excellent hitchers out there—Casey Backus,
Alfredo Campos, Douglas Krause, Toni
Schutte and a few others.”
Looking at Stark’s hands, one marvels that he is able to hitch fine strands
of horsehair into artful, museum-quality
cowboy gear that is also functional. Wide
and strong, his fingers seem better suited
to heavy ranch work than the intricate art
of hitching. The reata, with its elaborate
designs, dispels that impression. However,
it is only part of the story.
Mention prison and it usually conjures
images of criminals confined in concrete
cells behind steel bars. Montana State Prison, located in Deer Lodge, is an exception.
People in cow country refer to this penitentiary respectfully, because it is synonymous with some of the best hair-hitching
work in the United States.
Horsehair hitching traces back to the
ancient Moorish culture and was brought
to North America by the Spaniards, who
then shared it with American Indians, vaqueros and other agrarian cultures. The
traditional art has been carried on at Deer
Lodge and other prisons in the West since
their establishment in the late 1800s.
The prison stigma associated with
hitching sometimes deterred craftsmen
from doing the art, or at least admitting
to it, because they might be asked where
they served time. But in the 1980s there
was a resurgence of interest in the craft.
During this time, Stark was managing
a ranch and training horses in Garrison,
Montana, about 10 miles from Deer
Lodge. The hitching he saw emerge from
the prison intrigued him so much that
he wanted to learn how to do it. A friend
who was the prison ranch manager arranged for Stark to come and learn from
one of the inmates, whose identity Stark
does not reveal. It was a good thing that
Stark quickly picked up the art, because
his mentor was paroled three weeks later.
“As a kid, I tooled leather and was fascinated with horsehair hitching the first
time I saw it,” Stark says. “It is intricate,
something different, a lost art. I love doing it because it is mind-settling.”
Every hitcher has his or her own techniques that distinguish their work from
that of other hitchers, but most processes
are universal.
Tail hair is preferred for hitching because the strands are longer and stronger.
Stark is among the few hitchers who have
made a horsehair reata. Of the hitched
reatas he has seen, Stark says his is the
longest and has the most detailed designs.
Horsehair is cleaned and dyed, and then
several pieces—usually eight to 10—are
twisted together into a single strand called
a “pull,” which Stark braids.
Horsehair belts are a traditional part of a
cowboy’s wardrobe. Stark uses a variety of
colors of horsehair and patterns to make
his work stand out.
114 WESTERN HORSEMAN | 75TH ANNIVERSARY
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Gary Stark is a horsehair hitcher and horse
trainer based in Caldwell, Idaho. He is
shown here with his stallion Nu Freckles
Cody, who has won money in American
Quarter Horse Association and National
Reined Cow Horse Association competition.
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CowboyStyle
These quirts, hitched around a rawhide core by Stark, show his complex designs and color patterns.
Once the hair is clean and dyed, Stark
twists several strands into a single strand
called a “pull.” The item being created
dictates the number of strands he uses,
but most of the time he uses eight- to
10-strand pulls. Belts, hatbands and other
flat items are hitched on a dowel, often
called “the round.” When the hitching is
complete, the item is wetted, removed
from the dowel, pressed flat and left to dry.
Round items are hitched on a core made
of rawhide, cotton or other material.
A time-consuming art, hitching a belt,
reins, headstall or other piece of gear takes
hundreds of pulls of hair and sometimes
hundreds of hours, depending on the
WHMMG_111200_6666Ranch_942579.indd 1
10/14/11 11:32:31
AM
craftsman
and detail of the design.
Stark is exacting with his art and will
Starting the Cowhorse-DVD
not compromise his quality. He incorporates animals, letters, numbers, years and
Mike Major, 2009
other figures in the needle knot, which is
AQHA Versatility
the finished knot on a piece. If asked to
Ranch Horse World
make a bridle with just some horsehairChampion, breaks
down the basics of
hitched accents, he explains that is not
how to build a cow
how he works. His headstalls, belts, quirts,
work foundation on
bosals and other gear often are created
your horse, focusing
entirely of horsehair, except for the conon control, starting
on cattle, patterning,
necting pieces, such as buckles.
connecting, mirroring,
“I want to stand apart when it comes
boxing and fencing.
to my hitching,” Stark says.
Fellow hitcher and braider Douglas
50 plus minutes. Product # 446. $39.95
Krause has known Stark since the 1980s
and has collaborated with him and other
Call Toll Free: 800-874-6774
hitchers and braiders for a demonstra(M-F from 7 AM - 4 PM).
tion and to create a piece for the Western
Folklife Center in Elko, Nevada.
Order online at:
“He does very nice work,” Krause conwesternhorseman.com.
firms.
“The first piece of his work I saw
MasterCard, VISA and Discover orders only.
was in the mid-1980s. Gary and rawhide
All other orders to:
braider Jack Shephard collaborated on
Globe Pequot Press/Western Horseman
a bosal. Gary hitched flags on the cheek
pieces.”
128 Pinnacle Drive, Springfield, TN 37172
Krause also says that one of the things
Canadian/International orders call
that distinguishes Stark’s craftsmanship
from that of other hitchers is the ornate
615-382-3100
borders and repetitive patterns he creates.
Mike Major
These are a reflection of the prison-style
work from which Stark learned.
When evaluating the quality of horsehair hitching, Stark considers several factors, including the length of the stitch,
tightness of the weave, tightness of the
press and intricacy of the piece. A longer
stitch is less intricate and, therefore, not
as highly valued. The weave should be
very tight, without gaps, and the more
intricate the design or pattern, the higher
the value. Because hitching is done on
the round, when a piece is pressed flat the
tightness of the press determines quality.
Although he may seem solitary and
abrupt at times, Stark loves sharing his
knowledge with others. He has taught
large groups in California, Nevada and
Texas, as well as the Canadian Mounted
Police. He also has produced two videos,
one of which touts that a person can make
a belt by the end of the demonstration.
Through the years, Stark has apprenticed aspiring and accomplished hitchers.
“Gary is very open to share his knowledge,” Krause says. “He showed me a different way to twist my hair into pulls that
was five times faster than what I had been
doing. It was a great revelation.”
“Hitching is in danger of becoming a
lost art, and I want to see it carried on,”
Stark says. “It is different and intriguing,
and part of our Western heritage.”
Stark developed his meticulous character while growing up on a ranch in
northern Utah.
“Dad used reverse psychology on me,”
he explains. “I remember when I was
young and he said, ‘You will never be
a calf roper.’ Well, Dad must have been
laughing to himself. I asked him how
many calves I had to rope to be good, and
he said about 100. I roped 100 or more
calves and went on to win the Utah State
High School Rodeo Association calf-roping championship.”
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Besides roping and training horses,
Stark also learned how to shoe horses
when he was 15, and do ranch work that
some grown men found difficult. After
graduating from high school, he attended Utah State University on a four-year
rodeo scholarship and continued to train
horses. He graduated with a bachelor’s
degree in animal science and minors in
business, math, chemistry and Spanish.
During a trip to California, he saw
some well-bred horses and was impressed
with their abilities. He sold the horses he
had and began buying horses that fit his
new vision. He studied the methods of
Ray Hunt, and Tom and Bill Dorrance,
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and worked with horsemen Bryan Neubert and Charlie Van Norman. In 1980,
confident in his skills, he started training
working cow horses.
Now a well-respected reined cow horse
competitor, Stark operates Stark Training
Stables in Caldwell, Idaho. His stallion
Nu Freckles Cody has won more than
$40,000 at National Reined Cow Horse
Association events. The horse also qualified for the 2009 Fort Dodge/American
Quarter Horse Association Versatility Ranch Horse World Championship
Show, where he finished ninth in the
open and was fourth-place high-point
senior versatility ranch horse. He also
was the reserve open hackamore national
champion at the 2005 and 2006 NRCHA
World Championship Shows.
Stark enjoys training horses and helping others, whether it is to improve their
horsemanship or hitching skills. But beware: He is particular.
“I am a perfectionist,” he admits. “It’s
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important in all the work I do, whether
it is hitching horsehair or training ­horses.
There’s no point in doing something
halfway.”
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westernhorseman.com
Andrea Scott is a freelance writer based in Idaho.
December 2011 | WESTERN HORSEMAN 117
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