Buckaroo John's Blog

"They're beginning to get on my nerves. Who are those guys?"...A quote from Butch Cassidy played by Paul Newman in the movie "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.  This is a classic quote from a movie about two "infamous" outlaws Robert LeRoy Parker (Butch Cassidy) and Harry Alonzo Longabaugh (Sundance Kid). Both were well known members of the gang "The Wild Bunch". But what of the young women we see with Butch Cassidy and Sundance? Who was she? Her name was Etta Place or maybe it was really Ethel, Eva, Rita or Ethel Bishop. There have been many theories on...

In light of the terrible fires we’ve had in California the past few years, we’ve compiled information on different identification methods available for our horses and other livestock. At times, owners are not home when a fire or other disaster starts. Horses are sometimes left on their own to figure out an escape. Sometimes friends, family and/or first responders are forced to open gates and let livestock go.  How can our horses be identified and protected 24 hours a day, seven days a week? Permanent identification methods such as traditional branding and freeze branding are excellent options for identification, when...

I recently came across the remains of an old horse trailer at an old ranch in Sonora, California. It made me think about the history of the horse trailer and the many ways horses have been transported throughout the years. The history of horse trailers is quite interesting.  Throughout history, horses were transported by ships, rail cars, and wagons pulled by horses, cars and trucks. Pictured here in 1928, is a New Mexico man transporting his horse in a trailer with wooden slat sides. In 1927, a German company named Westfalia, began building horse trailers and expanded their building to...

Happy Fourth of July, from all of us at Buckaroo Leather!

The chuck wagon was invented in 1866, when Texas rancher Charles Goodnight converted an old army-surplus Studebaker wagon into a mobile kitchen to feed cowboys while driving cattle from Texas to New Mexico.  The wagon itself carried everything you could possibly need. A Dutch oven was important for cooking, along with food such as beans, salted meat, sourdough biscuits, dry fruit, a water barrel, guns, ammo, farrier supplies, ropes, lanterns, firewood, kerosene, slickers, bandages, coffee, tobacco and alcohol. If a cowboy or calf was injured, they would ride in the back of the chuck wagon. The second highest ranking cowboy...