McCormack Hill Leather is a small leather workshop in Rathdrum, Idaho which evolved from our need for more functionality and better design in the tack we use. All the items we make are items we use with our own horses.

You'll find custom saddles, chaps, bridles, figure-8 foal halters and ropes, as well as hard-to-find hardware such as the stainless steel trigger-bull-snap and rope thimbles that we use on our ropes, and "halter hooks" to turn a tie-on rope halter into a hook-on.

You'll also find small accessories such as martingale stoppers to prevent martingale rings from sliding forward and catching the bit, and elegant pens and gemstones in braided rawhide and kangaroo.

We are committed to making sturdy tack with the highest-quality leather and materials. Every item has some feature that makes it more useful and sets it apart from what you'll find in tack stores. We specialize in high quality, creative, traditional western gear that is completely hand-made - and of course, made in the USA!

We stand by the quality in everything we make. If you are unhappy with anything, please feel free to return it for a full refund or exchange.

Happy Shopping!

Riding Out

January 28, 2010 - Two quick updates here: I've finally gotten new braided items posted, so take a look (there are a few price changes, too), and foaling season will start soon (if it hasn't already, so check out our figure-8 foal halters - the very best halter type for a foal, made with smooth, supple, strong english bridle leather and hook-and-dees for quick on-and-off with fidgety foals.

January 1, 2010 - I've never introduced myself! I'm Julia Kelly, former Air Force pilot and tech-book writer (you can look up my books about using Excel, Access, Outlook, etc., online), lifelong horsewoman, and full-time saddlemaker/braider/leatherworker. My silent partner is the McCormack in McCormack Hill Leather.

The beginning of a new year (and a new decade) means it's time to evaluate the old and make goals and plans for the new. In December I gave up on a beautiful, eye-candy palomino Quarter Horse and sent her off to be someone else's perfect horse. It broke my heart to give up on her, but it was a partnership that just didn't work no matter how I tried. A good friend pointed out that Fred Astaire went through many terrific dancing partners before he settled on Ginger Rogers; they "clicked" and the partnership, though hard work, was phenomenal. That makes me feel better (although I miss the mare's pretty princess face). This mare was just four when I got her and she'd already been through a couple of well-known reining trainers but was sold because she was "too hot for reining". I started where they'd left off and tried to continue her training, but in any endeavor (woodworking, rawhide braiding, horse training, etc.) mistakes and shortcuts at the beginning will ruin the finished product. My goal was/is a horse I can "dance" with, and that wasn't happening with her – there were too many unfinished building blocks in her early training and although she was very athletic, smart, and willing, the foundation was shaky.

So I started her over at the beginning. I spent two years with her in a traditional jaquima (hackamore)  while I began my journey into the vaquero/californio way of horsemanship. With patient, long-distance guidance from Dorothy Rogers at California Classics (Dorothy is a goldmine of knowledge and tradition, and is slowly writing a book compiling it all that I cannot wait to read) I learned the how and why of properly fitting a well-made rawhide bosal and horsehair mecate (and how to ride with them), and spent those two years at a standstill, walk, and occasional jog, teaching her to respond to the slightest pressure and weight change, to listen to me, and to balance herself and pay attention to her own footsteps. I learned how to help her learn and to get out of her way while she did. She was smart, sensitive, and a joy to ride… until it came time to begin loping again. I had old anxieties and expectations of a rough, square-wheel ride on a barely controlled runaway, and that's exactly what I got. And I couldn't get past it. The problem was me, not her, so I consoled myself that our partnership wasn't meant to be and sent her off to a friend who found her to be a perfect lady and remarkable athlete - in the arena, on the trail, everywhere.

Still feeling a little heartbroken that she will be someone else's perfect horse (but knowing that her two years of "slow" with me probably made her the lady she is now), I'm turning my attention to my other mare, a cute little buckskin QH who has been the palomino's unsung understudy all this time. I had re-started the buckskin (Jessie) in her own jaquima alongside the palomino so that I could immerse myself in the vaquero tradition completely, and she has been the hidden star all this time, just waiting for me to notice her. No problems, no anxieties, just the quiet, reliable temperament one wants in a bridle horse.

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