Clinton Hole

“I don’t want to relegate myself to one style. I really enjoy barrel saddles and working cowboy saddles. But I’ll build what anybody wants.”
—Clinton Hole

he June heat came off the tarmac in shimmery waves outside the cattle pens at the Oklahoma City stockyards. It was just another sale day, and the cowboy enjoyed moving the cattle up the alleys on horseback after they were sold. It was just a part-time job, but it let him get out and do a little cowboying. When his sweaty mare tired, the cowboy borrowed another mount. He changed the saddle over to the gelding at his stock trailer. Both horses were tied next to each other and the cowboy ducked under the gelding’s neck to adjust his breast collar. In the slow-motion unfolding of events that is familiar to any horseman that’s been in the wrong place at the wrong time, the gelding set back. The lead rope was stretched