The Western Heritage Classic draws established and new spur makers who can produce custom spurs and bits with the ranch brand in the design. New spur makers are developing a fol- lowing and some of their items could become highly collectable.
Saddle makers, rawhide braiders, and Dorothy Weymouth, the “Dish Lady,” who sells antique ranch-style dishware, can be found at the Western Heritage Classic trade show.
and branding competitions, while the bucking stock comes from the Beutler ranch. Phil Guitar notes, “If you’re trying to furnish stock for an event like the branding, you’ve got to get the cattle that are the right size. You don’t want to come out with a 500-pound calf that you’re trying to brand out there. It’s too hard on the men and too hard on the horses, and it’s not realistic be- cause if you’re actually branding on your own ranch, you’re branding a small calf in most cases.” Similarly, for the cow milking
you want a mature cow, but not one that’s overly aggressive. “It’s dangerous enough as it is,” Guitar says. “We try to be very, very safe for the Western Heritage; we do furnish complete insurance for all the ranches that participate. We’re one of the only rodeos in the coun- try that has actually got insurance available for every discipline in this rodeo. That’s almost impossible to
tscra.org
come up with. There’s a certain ele- ment of risk. If you get somebody that wants to go because it’s a lot of fun and they get injured really badly, then the fun’s over.” The other important thing about
stock selection is uniformity. He says, “I’ve been at it long enough that I know what cattle fi t in events — what size, what genetics, what breed. You’ve got to have every- thing pretty well the same. Ev- erybody’s got to have the same opportunity, so you can’t come out with a mixed set of cattle. That’s no good. You’ve got to have every- thing consistent, and everybody’s got a chance to compete on the same plane.” The WHC is always on the look-
out for new events, provided, Gui- tar says, they fi t what they’re trying to do. “We’re not going to put on a rock concert or something like that,” he says. “Anything that we see that is new or unique, that
would fi t in under that umbrella. Or, we’re trying to tweak the event that we’ve already got, to make it better.” Does the WHC refl ect back on
his business? “I don’t think it draws attention to anything we’re trying to do,” he says. “Of course, we really enjoy being involved. It’s fun for the guys. The same ranches compete year after year in our deal. A lot of rodeos are different, and they have a rotating deal. They’re in some dif- ferent organizations where they’ll have a cluster of ranches on Friday night and another cluster of ranches on Saturday night. They’re trying to get somebody qualifi ed to go on to that WRCA.” Guitar Ranches used to do that,
too. Now, the Classic is their only rodeo. “Our deal is just 10 ranches,” he says. “We’ve been very fortu- nate to have these ranches, and the same ranches, compete year after year.”
December 2013 The Cattleman 61
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