Jim Gerber - Solid Ground Seats

Jim Gerber

Solid Ground Seats

‘Long tapaderas hangin’ down both sides of an old Visalia tree’

By Stephen L. Wilmeth

            The answer is …leather.

The question was, “what is the smell emanating from memories of the ‘50s and ‘60s in Silver City with the names Dick Hays, Wilburn Thomas, Garrett Allen, and Clifford Yarbrough?”

Of course, I knew Dick best, but his shop was closed by the time I came along. Dick came from Kansas as just a kid and wound up living with my grandparents. My grandmother gave him some money to go to town to buy some clothes so he could go to school. He lived with them for a couple of years.

 Wilburn Thomas’ was the first shop that I can remember the smell. I used to go in there with Uncle Bill. It was a gathering place for fellows who roped and actually knew how to flank calves and milk cows from chores and practice. Serious business was discussed I’m sure.

I was just a back drop. I’d go sit on the saddles and look at stuff while the conversations went on. I loved being there with the big guys, though. I think it was also a time when at least some opinions of saddle preferences began.

Clifford Yarbrough worked for Wilburn at that time. He was just a young buck probably about the age of my uncle. Ultimately, he became a well known maker and had a shop for years in Las Cruces. Recently, my uncle talked about how Clifford could lay a pattern out on a belt free hand and have it nearly tooled during the span of one of those conversations.

Garrett was a true gentleman.

He was very patient with us young guys who had so little money. His shop was on the south end of Bullard in the territorial red brick building where Jalisco’s Restaurant is today. It was at Garrett’s I first recognized the beauty of burnished edges. I learned some buzz words like buck stitching and skiving. Garrett made Hugh’s graduation saddle and it was buck stitched. I just knew I had to have a buck stitched saddle.

The new saddles of that era were influenced by rodeo. They were generally Bowman or Chuck Shepard type ropers with Association influenced trees built with flat seats without much lift. They were dominated with Cheyenne rolls and how those guys could sew those 2½” cantle bindings without going crazy I’ll be danged if I know.

They were leather, though, and those shops were wonderful places that hold good memories.

Jim Gerber

By the time I met Jim Gerber, I was more mature and seeing California traditions was an eye opener for me. It was in Jim’s shop at Rosedale on the outskirts of Bakersfield that I learned what I know about saddle making. Jim had learned from Wade Warren who perfected his craft working for the famous Visalia Stock Saddle Company.

Through Jim, J.M. Capriola, Ray Holes, and even Lyle Henderson of Platte Valley Saddle Shop came to be known in name and products. As time went on, Jeremiah Watt, Rick Ricotti, and Cary Schwarz came through our world as well. Kathy bought me enough tools from Jeremiah they knew each other pretty well on the telephone. I marveled at Rick’s saddles in his shop in Clements as well his special offerings at the Snaffle Bit Futurity every year. He was always friendly but he never would divulge how he cut those micro filigree patterns in binding edges.

Cary Schwarz may just be the best saddle maker that ever lived. His products are not just leather tools of the trade. They are artistic and museum quality wonders. Every inch of those saddles are touched and finished with genius. Google him and look at them. Then look at the prices!

Through Jim, we met people who will have influence on us for the duration.

The vaqueros led by Chuck Hitchcock and Ernie Morris came into our lives with their techniques in life and horsemanship. From Chuck came Arnold Rojas, Jimmy Rogers (Will’s youngest son), Greg Ward, and Jim Rocha, the Bidart cowboss. Quality people of the horse and of the Western Slope heritage they were.

For an hour one memorable afternoon at the California Rodeo in Salinas, I sat on the steps of the contestant office and talked to Bill Dorrance, the elder of the great Dorrance brothers. Of course, we talked horses.

And, then there were the jewelry providers. Phil Rudnick who somehow wangled Fleming Silver, Herb and Nadine Bork who still make the best rigging hardware in the world, and the beautiful young ladies of the B-C Manufacturing Company who imported hand made spurs, bits, and everything else silver from Mexico.

When Jim drug his spur and Garcia bit collection out and offered to sell me anything in the collection, but the lowest price in the entire offering was $900, I knew I was a long way from New Mexico.

Chuck’s tack room was even more revealing. We walked in and he turned the lights on. There it all was under spotlight.

From Guitron quality bosals of every diameter, to ring snaffles, through the intermediates, and on to scores of Garcia made Santa Barbara, Santa Susana, and Las Cruces bits with everything from San Joaquin domes and half breeds on to spade mouthpieces and most married to Louis Ortega romal reins, it was the real deal.

All that handmade treasure was collected over three lifetimes and much of it from deceased Kern County vaqueros of immense talent. It was simply … spectacular.

Solid ground seats

Jim’s first advice was pretty simple.

“Make your cuts 90º, bleed up, and strive to limit anything in the saddle that isn’t naturally derived,” he said.

He disliked synthetics and that included thread. Linen thread was the only thing he sewed with, and he loved to sew. He had more sewing machines than he ever used, but he still liked to sew by hand. One of my most special tools is an awl that I bought from him. He got it from a maker who tooled for Edward Bohlin in Los Angeles. I recently broke the last blade that came with it. I was tired and wasn’t being careful.

He never used metal spanners in ground seats. That went along with his preference of using only natural materials. As a result, ground seats were built only from leather. I must say I no longer install them quite like he did. If available, I have found that using old seats for the base piece is easier, and it adds history to the saddle. I like the fact that at least a piece of a saddle is perpetuated.

Jim supervised with attention the first one I did. We glued, pulled, and tacked it like he had learned from Wade. We added only two layers over the base (I now prefer three but lower ounce count layers). He then told me to sit on it.

“What am I actually supposed to feel?” was my earnest question.

“Does your butt feel comfortable?” was Jim’s matter of fact answer.

I am convinced that point is lost on the majority of riders. In fact, I don’t think I understood it clearly until much later and, at a time when I was horseback and working cattle as an adult. From his book and the stories from Jim and Chuck, the words of Arnold Rojas also impacted that realization.

Arnold would say, “Give me a saddle to sit in … not on.”

There is huge implication in that statement. Unfortunately, there are so few saddle makers in most areas that the majority of riders will never experience the comfort of a saddle that is actually built for them.

Their horses are worse off. They are subjected to whatever gets thrown over their backs. If the tree can be placed on a horse without a blanket or skirts, the rider can at least observe how to blanket a horse to limit discomfort. This business about checking a saddle fit when you can’t see what you are looking at is nonsense. It can’t be done.

If you can start by selecting bare trees by sitting them on the horse, you’ll be more informed. Better yet, having a tree made specifically for the horse is by far the best route. Certainly, most riders can’t do that, but, when good horses cost thousands of dollars, another investment in the wellbeing of that horse is only prudent. I have done that with my horses, and we will start doing that on our ranch horses as well. They are valuable assets and ranches can not have big numbers of them.

The comfort to the rider, though, starts with the ground seat. It is a hugely important first step, and, I think … the most difficult step in building quality saddles.

Stephen L. Wilmeth is a rancher from southern New Mexico. “Hail to the maker … keep the tradition alive!”