A Note from Kathy:
While traveling to the different cowboy poetry gatherings and other shows with Calvin to show his rawhide I fell in love with the Hitched Horsehair pieces that were being displayed. Being born and raised in Montana, I had seen many of the “prison” made pieces and had always liked it but didn’t realize how much went into making it. At a gathering in Riverton, Wyoming we sat next
to a hitcher named Bill Croft. I watched him hitching all weekend and decided that I had to try it. I had some help with my patterns from another hitcher named Priss Leslie, she also told me about Shoni Maulding’s books which has been a great help! The real time consuming part is the hair preparation. Counting, twisting, washing & dyeing is what takes forever. Then you have to decide on your color scheme and patterns before the hitching ever even starts. I learned how to work leather as a 4-H project may years ago and I still do it the old fashioned way, it is “carved and tooled” not stamped! I have been making hitched “inlays” and then sewing then into my leather purses, checkbook covers, day planners and other leather projects. I like bright colors and vivid designs best. I grew up on a ranch, did High School and Little Britches Rodeos. I have been employed in law enforcement, buckarooing, worked on a nuclear power plant & taught school but, I always came back to ranching.
