A Breast Collar That Trigger Wore.....Over The Neck Style

In the picture above, you will see Roy Rogers and Trigger and one of his amazing saddles with the over the neck style leather Breast Collar. You can see this style in many of Roy’s photos and movies with Trigger.

Trigger's finest saddles were made by Edward H. Bohlin. He was known as the Michelangelo of saddle making. Many of Trigger's saddles were covered in intricate patterns in silver and gold, and some of them weighed as much as 150 pounds.
 

Along with his Bohlin saddles, Roy also purchased the Music saddle. It is one of the most elaborate saddles ever made. It was created in the early 1930's for a lady named Mrs. Music and she rode this saddle in the annual Rose Parade and other events for a number of years. She was a small lady and this saddle has a very small seat. It took 16 men almost a year to produce this saddle set that originally sold for $20,000 and reportedly contained 1,400 ounces of sterling silver, 136 ounces of gold and hundreds of Czech rubies. Roy bought the items from the original owner's estate in 1950 for $50,000

Would you love to have a western breast collar with the over the neck style that is inspired by Trigger's. Buckaroo Leather now has the Hollywood One Piece Breast Collar. (above)

And if you also love the parade style horse tack inspired by Ed Bohlin we have a vintage parade headstall that is beautiful. This was a custom order and can be made to order especially for you.







Our family has been dedicated for 30 years in serving the 
Western Horseman the safest most durable 
Quality American made leather horse tack....... Buckaroo John Brand Buckaroo Leather, The Brand to Demand 
Visit Our Unique Store Today 
Buckaroo Leather Shopping Site

Old Western Hollywood Style Breast Collar...Just Like Trigger Wore!!

In the picture above, you will see Roy Rogers and Trigger and one of his amazing saddles with the over the neck style leather Breast Collar. You can see this style in many of Roy’s photos and movies with Trigger.

Trigger's finest saddles were made by Edward H. Bohlin. He was known as the Michelangelo of saddle making. Many of Trigger's saddles were covered in intricate patterns in silver and gold, and some of them weighed as much as 150 pounds.
 
Along with his Bohlin saddles, Roy also purchased the Music saddle. It is one of the most elaborate saddles ever made. It was created in the early 1930's for a lady named Mrs. Music and she rode this saddle in the annual Rose Parade and other events for a number of years. She was a small lady and this saddle has a very small seat. It took 16 men almost a year to produce this saddle set that originally sold for $20,000 and reportedly contained 1,400 ounces of sterling silver, 136 ounces of gold and hundreds of Czech rubies. Roy bought the items from the original owner's estate in 1950 for $50,000

Would you love to have a western breast collar with the over the neck style that is inspired by Trigger's. Buckaroo Leather now has the Hollywood One Piece Breast Collar. (above)

And if you also love the parade style horse tack inspired by Ed Bohlin we have a vintage parade breast collar and headstall that is beautiful. This was a custom order and can be made to order especially for you. (above and below)

Our family has been dedicated for 30 years in serving 
the Western Horseman the safest most durable 
Quality American made leather horse tack....... Buckaroo John Brand Buckaroo Leather, The Brand to Demand 
Visit Our Unique Store Today  
Buckaroo Leather Shopping Site

Buckaroo Leather + a Bohlin Saddle of the "Duke" at NFR this week.....

Buckaroo Leather Products will be 

at the National Finals Rodeo

starting this week, 

Thursday, December 5th to Saturday, December 14th 2013 

in Las Vegas, Nevada.  

Buckaroo Leather products will have a booth at the 

Mandalay Bay Hotel marketplace.

We will have all your favorite leather horse tack like the Cowboy Dressage horse tack, old west style breast collars, reins, and headstalls....including the newest breast collar pictured below.

Buckaroo Leather will also have two amazing saddles.....

This beautiful black saddle is an Edward H Bohlin Saddle. 

(Learn more about Bohlin here). Bohlin was the saddle maker to the old west stars, like Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, and Clayton Moore (the Lone Ranger). 

The story behind the saddle is that it belonged to 

John Wayne and he gave it to either his stuntman or 

sound man after filming True Grit.

 

This brown saddle is a vintage bear trap tree, probably 

a rare Montgomery Ward.

Come see these amazing saddles and say hi to Buckaroo John and shop for the holidays!!! 

Our family has been dedicated for 30 years in serving 
the Western Horseman the safest most durable 
Quality American made leather horse tack....... Buckaroo John Brand Buckaroo Leather, The Brand to Demand 
Visit Our Unique Store Today 
Buckaroo Leather Shopping Site

Ed Bohlin Saddlemaker to the Old West Stars

Eddie Bohlin ran away from home in Orebro, Sweden at age fifteen, hoping to find an apprenticeship as a silversmith. He was unable to find a position and instead worked his way to America on a four-masted schooner, arriving in New York in 1910. As he had been raised with horses, he headed for Montana, where he soon found his first job as a wrangler, rounding up more than nine hundred horses to be sold in Miles City, then the horse trading capital of the world.

For several years Bohlin worked as a cowboy on long cattle drives, both on horseback and as a hand on the freight trains that took cattle to the Chicago stockyards. Bohlin had an aptitude for art, this inspired him to attend the Art Institute in Minneapolis for four months. There he learned the basic concepts that later results in his artistic masterpieces.

Bohlin opened his first silver and saddle shop in Cody, Wyoming, just across the street from Buffalo Bill Cody's Irma Hotel. It was in this shop that he created his first fancy silver-mounted cowboy gear.

While in Billings, Montana, on a buying trip for his shop, an event occurred that changed his life. Billboards around town advertised a vaudeville performance with live horses on the stage, for which he purchased a ticket. Bohlin recognized one of the act's performers from one of his earlier cattle drives and was introduced by him to the show's manager. When Bohlin showed the manger some of his rope tricks that he had picked up along the way, he got hired. The vaudeville act, no matter how small-time, eventually gave Bohlin an unexpected break.

In Los Angeles, while performing at the new Pantages Theatre in 1922, Bohlin heard a loud voice call out from the audience, "Hey kid! What do you want for the coat?" The fellow had spotted Bohlin's coat of black, white and tan calfskin that he had made for himself. "Thirty-five dollars," Bohlin yelled back. When he returned the following night, the coat was gone from his dressing room and in its place was a thirty-five dollar check with Tom Mix's picture and name on it.

                                                         Tom Mix

In those days the cowboy star Tom Mix (1880-1940) was one of Hollywood's most popular actors. Mix asked his friend and business associate, Pat Christman, to invite Bohlin to the studio and to bring some silver and leather goods with him. Tom Mix quickly purchased various items, including the silver decorated boots Bohlin was wearing at the time, for seventy-five dollars. Mix strongly encouraged him to stay on in Hollywood to produce silver and leather items for the studio market.

With this exciting encouragement, Bohlin immediately gave two weeks' notice to the vaudeville troupe's owner and started looking for a place to set up shop. He was fortunate enough to persuade the First Baptist Church in Hollywood to rent him part of their building on the corner of Cahuenga and Selma Avenues.

The rapid success of his business soon required him to move the shop to larger quarters. He occupied a series of addresses on Cahuenga and Selma Avenues, and hired many skilled leather workers and silversmiths to augment his own skills and vision.

Tom Mix, his first great customer and friend in Hollywood, was joined by many other film stars, who assured Bohlin of a built-in clientele. This connection with the studios quickly brought him the job of supplying the Egyptian-style chariot harnesses for Cecil B. DeMille's "The Ten Commandments," in 1923, and twenty Roman-style chariot harnesses for MGM's 1925 production of "Ben Hur." Another early studio job was supplying two hundred buckskin suits for Universal's 1923 movie "The Days of Daniel Boone." This order alone came to more than four thousand dollars, a huge sum in those days.

Bohlin's relationship with Tom Mix coincided with the beginning of the era of the super fancy movie cowboy, and his skills were matched by Hollywood's demands for spectacular goods in the Western style. In addition to the early custom work he made for Tom Mix, he produced a richly mounted custom saddle, bridle and breast collar for Buck Jones, and a pair of pistols inlaid with gold and silver for William S. Hart.

                                        Roy Rogers and Trigger and his Bohlin Saddle

Soon, every successful Western star had to have Bohlin equipment for personal appearances, parades and the movies themselves. Bohlin's movie cowboy customers over the next thirty years would include Ray "Crash" Corrigan, Ken Maynard, Rex Bell, Will Rogers, Leo Carillo, Monte Montana, Monte Hale, Gene Autry, Charles Starrett, William Boyd (Hopalong Cassidy), Roy Rogers, Dale Evans, Clayton Moore (the Lone Ranger), and Ronald Reagan.

One of Bohlin's custom saddles was owned by two popular and durable Western actors. Ray "Crash" Corrigan (1902-1976) ordered a special saddle and tack from Bohlin in 1938 which he used in about forty movies. Corrigan appeared in dozens of Westerns and starred with John Wayne in twenty-four episodes of the 1930s serial "The Three Mesquiteers."

Although the fancy saddles Bohlin designed for cowboy stars provided him with great publicity, his stock designs sold to private horsemen were probably his greatest source of day-to-day income. The most luxurious of these made the movie saddles seem understated by comparison. One of the most spectacular of his stock saddles was the "Fiesta" model. In addition to its elaborately tooled leather, the saddle was heavily mounted with chased and engraved silver openwork plates and conchas, and further adorned with eighteen three-color gold steers' heads with ruby-colored gemstone eyes and other gold ornaments.

                                                        Bohlin Fiesta Saddle

Understandably the "Fiesta" model was very expensive. Requiring more than six weeks of work, its list price in the 1941 catalog was $1,255. In 1941 the average cost of a new automobile was $925. (Bohlin's most expensive stock saddle in the 1941 catalog was the "P.K. Wrigley" model. With all of its matching tack, the saddle's list price was $5,750.)

Bohlin also designed and produced nearly ninety percent of the hundreds of silver-mounted parade saddles used in the Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena, California. In all, between 1923 and 1980, the Bohlin Shop designed, produced and sold more than twelve thousand saddles, most of which were extensively adorned with sterling silver ornamentation.

                                                       Bohlin Parade Saddle

Unquestionably the most spectacular and unique example of his artistry was his very own parade saddle, lovingly fabricated with gold and silver over a fourteen-year span and finally completed in 1945. The seventy-pound saddle has gold and silver relief carvings that depict in minute detail scenes of western life and game animals of the Pacific Slope. When completed it was considered the most expensive parade saddle in the world with a value in excess of $125,000. Gene Autry later purchased it for an undisclosed sum. It is now in the collection of the Autry Museum of Western Heritage in Los Angeles.

After more than fifty years in the trade, the old master finally semi-retired in 1972. His longtime employee, Bud Phillips, ran the shop for him. Bohlin later suffered a stroke that left him paralyzed until his death on 28 May 1980.



Our family has been dedicated for 30 years in serving 
the Western Horseman the safest most durable 
Quality American made leather horse tack....... Buckaroo John Brand Buckaroo Leather, The Brand to Demand 
Visit Our Unique Store Today 
Buckaroo Leather Shopping Site

Old West Singing Cowboys...Roy rogers, Gene Autry, Sons of the Pioneers

My Favorite Old West Singing Cowboys

 They Don't Make Them Like they Use Too!!!

I was searching through youtube and came across some old videos of some singing cowboys. Pioneers like Gene Autry, Sons of the Pioneers, Roy Rogers, Porter Wagoner, Johnny Cash and I got to thinking that they really don't make them like they use too!!! 

While I think there are some great country singers out there today, these singing cowboys of old are still the best.

So I decided to put together a post to share a few of my favorites. Enjoy the trip down memory lane!


Sons of the Pioneers

The Sons of the Pioneers is a classic group of signing cowboys that were icons of the American West and western music. The group was founded in 1934 by Roy Rogers. The Original group consisted of Tim Spencer, Bob Nolan, and Roy Rogers. The Sons of the Pioneers has lasted the test of time. They still perform today in Branson, Missouri.

To learn more about the Sons of the Pioneers here is a great website to visit......http://www.sonsofthepioneers.org

 The Sons of the Pioneers Singing a classic...

"Ghost Riders in the Sky"

 
in the photo from left to right Tim Spencer, Bob Nolan, Hugh Farr, Roy Rogers (Gus Mack, announcer).


Story Behind the Song Ghost Riders in the Sky

 

The inspiration for this song comes from an Indian legend. Ghost Riders in the Sky was written by Stan Jones. When he was a young boy, 12 years old he needed to finish up his chores. So he saddles up his horse and goes out side to finish them. While riding up a hill he comes across an old cowpuncher gazing into the sky. The cowpuncher tells young Stan to look in the sky and see the red eyed cow of the devils herd. Stan looks up and sees a strange cloud formation and the red eyes.

When Stan was older he was working for the forest service and happen to look up to the sky and saw that same strange cloud formation. It brought him back to that day on the hill with the old cowpuncher. So he went inside and wrote this classic song, Ghost Riders in the Sky.


Gene Autry
 

 Gene Autry, the Singing Cowboy in 1960 performing "Back in the Saddle Again"


 Roy Rogers

 An American Cowboy Icon

Who did not love to watch Roy Rogers and Dale Evans sing their way through a western.
 

This is a great video of Roy Rogers singing about the Vaqueros' of the Old West in the 1939 movie, "In Old Caliente".



Roy Rogers and Dale Evans

 Roy Rogers, Dale Evans and Foy Willing and the Riders of the Purple Sage


Our family has been dedicated for 30 years in serving the Western Horseman the safest most durable Quality American made leather horse tack....... Buckaroo John Brand 
Buckaroo Leather, The Brand to Demand 
Visit Our Unique Store Today  
Buckaroo Leather Shopping Site

Roy Rogers Riding "The Happy Trails"

Great Video of Roy Rogers riding Trigger singing Happy Trails- watch for the traditional western leather horse tack-

Great to see the old fashioned western riding gear-

Our family has been dedicated for 30 years in serving the
Western Horseman the safest most durable
Quality American made leather horse tack.......Buckaroo John Brand
Buckaroo Leather, The Brand to Demand
Visit Our Unique Store Today
Buckaroo Leather Shopping Site

Roy Rogers & Trigger Singing about the Cowboy Way...

This is a great Roy Rogers and Trigger video clip. Roy Rogers sings "don't fence me in!" Trigger also does a few tricks......You can also see the famous silver horse tack that Trigger is wearing, the over the shoulder breast collar.

Buckaroo Leather honors the true cowboys of the past, like Roy Rogers, with a traditional old west cowboy Headstall with silver dots, silver buckles, and tear drop cheeks.

Old traditional Cowboy and Buckaroo styling 3/4" browband headstall with antiqued silver conchas and buckle sets and old west silver dots. Beautiful old west tear drop cheeks and flared browband. Made with supple feeling wax stuffed Harness leather. Regular horse size.

Complete your traditional cowboy look with this new saddle pad. This old school pad with the traditional corona rool edge.

Western Legend Pad is a 32" x 32" canvas top pad with old school Corona rolled edges with fleece bottom and basket stamped wear leathers. And contoured to fit the back. Features Pad Lock System: 1. 3/4" non-collapsible front piping abuts the saddle skirt, preventing the pad from sliding back or shifting 2. Pad and Saddle become one unit, reducing friction and heat build up. 3. Perspiration develops naturally and evenly. 4. Neutralizes pressure points and performs the functions that riders demand

Buckaroo Leather is dedicated to the manufacturing of traditional quality tack.......

Ride American...............

Our family has been dedicated for 30 years in serving the
Western Horseman the safest most durable
Quality American made leather horse tack.......Buckaroo John Brand
Buckaroo Leather, The Brand to Demand
Visit Our Unique Store Today
Buckaroo Leather Shopping Site