In December 2023, I held a lottery for a custom bosal slot, and it was won by longtime customer Kelli K. In January, she sent me a beautiful reference photo of a true bridle horse — a horse trained in the Vaquero tradition, where progress is slow, intentional, and deeply respectful of the horse’s development.
A bridle horse is taught over time to eventually “pack a spade” — the iconic spade bit used in traditional western horsemanship. The horse begins its journey in a thick bosal as a youngster, then gradually transitions to thinner bosals as it matures. Some horses stay in bosals their whole lives, while others become full bridle horses like the one in Kelli’s photo. Even though he is a full bridle horse, he still wears a bosalita — not for control, but as a gentle reminder of head position. That detail really resonated with me and shaped the direction of the piece.
Kelli and I exchanged many emails discussing colors, textures, and overall look. She chose dark brown as the accent for the bosalita, with a herringbone interweave on either side and dark brown in the center. The base color was a lovely artificial rawhide from Land of Odds (I think!) — a shade I hadn’t used before, but I was thrilled with how it split and braided up. It had a beautiful finish and gave the piece a warm, authentic feel
In December 2023, I held a lottery for a custom bosal slot, and it was won by longtime customer Kelli K. In January, she sent me a beautiful reference photo of a true bridle horse — a horse trained in the Vaquero tradition, where progress is slow, intentional, and deeply respectful of the horse’s development.
A bridle horse is taught over time to eventually “pack a spade” — the iconic spade bit used in traditional western horsemanship. The horse begins its journey in a thick bosal as a youngster, then gradually transitions to thinner bosals as it matures. Some horses stay in bosals their whole lives, while others become full bridle horses like the one in Kelli’s photo. Even though he is a full bridle horse, he still wears a bosalita — not for control, but as a gentle reminder of head position. That detail really resonated with me and shaped the direction of the piece.
Kelli and I exchanged many emails discussing colors, textures, and overall look. She chose dark brown as the accent for the bosalita, with a herringbone interweave on either side and dark brown in the center. The base color was a lovely artificial rawhide from Land of Odds (I think!) — a shade I hadn’t used before, but I was thrilled with how it split and braided up. It had a beautiful finish and gave the piece a warm, authentic feel
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| My Crude Plan Drawing |
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| Practice things and the start of kelli's reins |
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| one of the attempts at a bosalita. this was too thick. |
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| bosalita, almost done. I interwove each side individually and then interwove the middle with the same color thread. |
The first attempt turned out too thick, so I had to start over — without any groundwork. (For those unfamiliar, groundwork refers to laying string or rawhide underneath a knot to give it shape and structure.) I was so happy with how the interweave turned out, especially since it was the first time I’d done it in this particular way. Definitely keeping that technique in my back pocket for future use.
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| Finished bosalita.. looks a little lopsided here but it's not.. just needed to even out the heel knot. |
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| Finished Bosalita and finished reins |
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| The whole set finished! |
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