ARTIST BIOGRAPHY
 | Traditional Skill/Art: Vaquero Leatherwork Years Won: 2025 Contact Information: Phone: 541-589-9641 Email: harrisvaquerogear@gmail.com |
Steve Harris was born a horseman, and close to the land. Harris grew with the rhythm of seasons, the knowledge of living things, the feel of soil, the taste of rain. His brother started him braiding when he was 15. Harris has lived in a time and region when his developing work could be examined and critiqued by hundreds of accomplished traditional horsemen. Some of these he found, many he met at riata ropings or Vaquero Fiestas. Amansadores (vaquero colt-starters) and reinsmen have ordered pieces from Harris, as well as invested time in discussion and demonstration of exactly how hackamores, saddles, reins, and bridles work. Harris shares that the most important cultural learning resource has been the horse, “Lessons learned through the reins brought to life the artifacts, examples, & teachings I received. There is consensus that I am a Master Braider; if so, I owe most of the best of my skill to the horses who have carried me along.”
APPRENTICE BIOGRAPHY
 | Caitriona Faithe Harris Traditional Skill/Art: Vaquero Leatherwork Years Won: 2025
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2025 is the third year Caitriona Faithe will work in her father’s shop as a formal apprentice; to this life and heritage she was born. Caiti has ridden after cattle with her father since she was quite small, she knows the smell of a branding fire. Caiti was born to hold a flame. She will pursue Hackamore Horsemanship, the Vaquero Tradition, and Trenzar. She will ultimately achieve mastery, and use her skills to preserve these things, and more importantly, shine a tiny light of authenticity in a contrived and artificial world!
If she does not choose to braid vocationally – if her trail winds in some other way – the principles of Vaquero Horse Culture & these competencies will inform her thinking, & strengthen her to face the challenges of life.
Q&A WITH THE MENTOR ARTIST
Vaquero Heritage & the Hackamore Horsemanship Tradition, and the making of horse gear in for these practices are living cultural descendants of ancient traditions. These traditions stretch through the Native American people of the Pacific Slope, the Spanish Missionaries and colonists of the New World, through Iberia, North Africa, the Middle East, and into the Steppes of Asia where researchers find the first remnants of the parallel bar saddle and the stirrup. Vaquero Horsemanship still living in the Great Basin, and the oak savanna lands of California and Oregon. Traditional practices often prove to be the most effective and sustainable. Traditional gear carries the patterns and motifs of these ancient cultures; it is usually braided of rawhide strands, or made of oak-tanned leather, just as it was for thousands of years. Herodotus writes of braided rawhide riatas used more than 2500 years ago. I use one still.
The making of exquisite traditional horse gear of braided rawhide and tooled leather is a contribution to the Art of Vaquero Horsemanship, a celebration of this culture, and a way of perpetuating it into the future. It also tells metaphorical truths with broad applications for horsemanship and life. It is an honor for me, as a Trenzador, a traditional rawhide braider, to participate in the Horsemanship Story of hundreds of people, and have a small role in handing down this aspect of our Vaquero Heritage as a maker of, advocate for, and teacher of Trenzar (rawhide braiding), and Vaquero saddlery.
To be respected by one’s peers and invited to participate in their lives, is the greatest honor. When the Rancho Santa Margarita hosted their Fiesta, they invited my wife Rebekah and me to display our gear in the Asestencia (dating from the 1700s). As a Trenzdor, I have been invited into many ‘juried’ shows as representative of the Old Ways. I’ve been interviewed, published, and sought out by people all over the world.
2025 is the first year Steve Harris has received a Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program award.
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