A cowboy can own the Rolls Royce of custom-made saddles, but eighth-grader Sam Harper says it’s worthless without a cinch to hold it in place. Harper ought to know; he’s been making cinches since he was a kid.

“Building cinches is fun and a good way to make income off to the side,” Harper said, “and something to do in the evenings to stay productive through the winter.”
 
High desert craft
 Winter can be long on the northwestern Nevada ranch where Harper’s family lives. Temperatures of 20 below zero are not unusual in the high, cold desert. The Little Humboldt Ranch was established in 1872, when I.V.

Button bought the valley that became the ranch headquarters for $50 and two saddle horses. Thirty-five miles of gravel road gets you to the pavement. A right turn takes you to Winnemucca, a left to Paradise Valley where the Harpers get their mail. A stack of spare tires on the back of their flatbed truck is expected. But they’re at home living 35 miles from blacktop in the heart of a ranching neighborhood.

Harper has grown up surrounded by Nevada buckaroos, their craftsmanship and ingenuity, and true to that tradition, his interests turn to the practical side of life. He measures out a long piece of mohair, doubles it in half, and begins a series of half-hitches to make a cinch.

“Misty Corlett said she’d teach Joe and me,” Harper said. “Joe [Harper, Sam’s 16-year-old brother] wasn’t interested, but I was.”

Every process of learning leads to problems that need to be worked out. For Harper, experts who have put their trust in good cinches, or who have studied the frayed ends of bad cinches, are within reach at the next branding, or in a chance meeting at the feed store or the tire shop.

“I was getting a curl in the middle of the cinch, and they were turning out really rough, so I talked to Harold Chapin [Nevada rancher and father of well-known cutting trainer Chuck Chapin]. He let me use a board with swivel hooks on each end.”

The swivel hooks allowed Harper do one line on one side, flip it over, and do the next line on the other side. That way the pull evens out and the cinch doesn’t curl but lays flat against the horse’s belly.

A cinch has specific requirements: It must be strong, yet soft. Mohair is the material most commonly used, but that doesn’t exclude other exotic fibers such as horse-mane hair, llama, angora, Navajo-Churro, or Harper’s second favorite, yak.

“I make the main body with eight-ply mohair and then I use two-ply mohair for the diamonds,” he said. “People like mohair because it’s softer; it breathes and sheds the sweat. The yak hair is stronger and a little coarser, but it doesn’t get hard and stiff when it gets wet like the mohair. I’ve been using a yak-hair cinch on my saddle for a year or two, and I’m happy with it."

All of Harper’s cinches are made with stainless steel D-rings. Stainless steel is an improvement over the old iron rings that would rust with hard use. Some people like the flat cinch ring that spreads the impact of dragging a big calf to the fire over a larger area on the horse. Others prefer the round cinch ring, thinking the flat ring puts more pressure on the mohair strands and wears them out. When there’s a controversy, the decision rests with Harper’s customer. He aims to please.

That philosophy also applies to color combinations and diamond patterns that hold the cinch strings together. When making the diamonds Harper starts in the middle with two strings and works in two directions to keep the diamond shape from straying off to one side.

“The last time I made cinches,” Harper said, “I started experimenting a little, and I put one color strand in the middle diamond and diamonds off of that. Diamonds hold the cinch together and support the cinch where the stress is. It also supports the D-rings for the martingale and the hobble to the back cinch. It turned out really pretty.”
 
Life’s a cinch
Sam Harper cinches are within easy reach of most people. His 17-strand cinches with stainless, single-bar rings are reasonably priced: 28-30 inches is $50; 32-34 inches is $55; and 36 inches is $60. But reaching out to people is important to Harper and means more than dollars and cents. He values the experiences and building bridges to other people.

“I enjoy making new friends,” Harper said.

Although Harper will be in high school soon, he doesn’t anticipate any major changes in his life. He’ll continue helping his family on the Little Humboldt Ranch, developing his own herd of cattle, his pigs, starting young horses and …

“I’ll continue building cinches, things of my own effort,” he said matter-of-factly. “I haven’t gotten any complaints yet.”

So when the riders saddle up to head out of a morning, Harper is there with them, in a way. When they tie onto some old bunch quitter and Harper’s cinch doesn’t fly apart, but the saddle stays put and the cinch holds against the hard pull, Harper will be proud of his handwork. He is at the heart of their work day.

At the 2008 Winnemucca Ranch-hand Rodeo, Harper sold six cinches in three hours. On Sunday, a benefit auction was held for Troy Van Norman, who was recently diagnosed with a grave illness. Harper donated one of his cinches, and it sold for more than $100.

“I want to keep my customers satisfied. I want to build a better product that will work, and keep them safe,” Harper said.

Harper is a modern-day entrepreneur. Besides maintaining his reputation in the company of Nevada buckaroos, he is developing as a craftsman and businessman who expands his circle of friends through his work.

Reach Sam Harper at Box 93, Paradise Valley, NV 89426 or 775-623-8757.