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  #2 Nevada Miller & Jeremiah Watt

  Jeremiah Watt and Nevada Miller

  Jeremiah Watt-

  Jeremiah is a resident of Coalinga, California and shares the Company work with his wife Colleen. Life for Jeremiah began as a saddlemaker and custom bitmaker. Today Jeremiah has a flourishing business with saddle hardware marketed under the Horse Shoe Brand logo and a line of bits and spurs, that can be found in stores all over the west marketed under the JWP brand.

  Jeremiah enjoys sharing the knowledge that he has gained over the 45 plus years of business life and hand skills. Jeremiah has produced DVD’s to help would be students as well as a yearly round of classes at the GRS facility in Emporia Kansas.

  Nevada Miller-

  Maker, silversmith, entrepreneur, and teacher. Nevada and her husband currently reside in the middle of nowhere, Southeastern Oregon, where she spends most of her time fabricating, engraving, and creating eclectic silver jewelry. However, helping her husband and their family on the ranch keeps her sane! Nevada is an active ranching wife seasoned in keeping the leppy calves alive and thriving!

   

  Bit Design and Inspiration

  What began as a crescent moon set beneath a 2.25” concho, ended its design journey as the “Bouquet Cheek”. The overall design celebrates the most popular singular design theme used out west, that being  the flower. Whether carved, engraved or growing between two rocks in the desert, the flower is as integral to the American west as is dust.

  Nevada and I decided we both wanted to incorporate the flower as a focal point, placed larger than life upon the designer’s pedestal. While we both agreed to pursuing this design concept, we both felt the need for an individualized approach to the flower’s actual attributes within the steel and silver canvas we were presented with. Our choice of flower shape, metal color etc. were up to each artist. Chose what appealed to you in the moment was our agreed upon journey.

  The modified El Segundo mouthpiece, being loose jawed and taller than the usual, offers the potential for more feel and signal response by the horse. If the horse responds well to some pallet pressure, then this El Segundo adaptation should serve the horse and rider well.

  Our bridle bit entry for 2023 contest incorporates steel, sterling silver, brass as well as copper. The only inference to Christ on this year’s entry lies in the almost imperceptible tiny cruciform shapes that act as background upon the upper concho rim. Like Christ himself, while he may go unseen at times in our lives, in truth he is always there if only we look closer.

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  #11 Travis Clelland

  Travis Clelland-

  Travis Clelland’s career as a bit and spur maker began as a required project to graduate from high school.  Since that time, it has blossomed into something much more-his passion and a business called T. Clelland Bits and Spurs. Travis spent many days working for some of the most beautiful ranches in Northern Nevada and Southern Idaho; the Spanish Ranch, the Winecup-Gamble Ranch, and the Y-3 Ranch as well as others.  This experience not only gave him an innate connection to nature and animals, but it taught him to understand the balance that is required in a bridle, and also what is needed for arena style bits and snaffle bits. His great Uncle, Mark Dahl, is quite well known in the Cowboy Arts realm and was kind enough to tutor Travis early in his career.  Travis also began engraving silver and steel with the help of Ernie Marsh in August of 2013.  Travis is very fortunate to live within walking distance of Dave Alderson.  Dave, a renowned Silversmith, has taken Travis under his wing and allowed Travis to apprentice under him. Dave has shown Travis how to take his engraving and silver work to a higher level.  Dave also taught Travis how to make his own silver sheet and wire.  Dave is always right down the road when Travis needs his expertise.

  Travis’ studio is located in Twin Falls, Idaho

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  #19 Forest Fretwell

  Forest Fretwell-

  Forest Fretwell is a retired Owyhee County rancher.  He still lives on the ranch that has been in his family for over 150 years.  Forest is 83 years old and produces some of the most beautiful silver bits and spurs available.

  Forest made his first pair of spurs when he was just 15 years old.  His granddad was a blacksmith of sorts and had some schooling in working with iron.  Forest needed a pair of spurs and didn’t have any money.  This is when his creative talents began and he built that first set of spurs.  Forest used that same set of spurs until his retirement.

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  #6 Connor Garwood

  Connor Garwood-

  Connor Garwood has spent most of his life cowboying on ranches from where he grew up in Nebraska to Wyoming, Nevada, and now Arizona where he’s currently colt starter and a cowboy on the ORO Ranch. When he’s not horseback, the 25-year-old craftsman is working on his next bit or pair of spurs. Connor became interested in making bits and spurs as a teenager after watching a Bruce Cheaney spur making video. He was 16 when he built his first pair of spurs at his grandpa’s shop with the help of his grandpa. He’d read about and admired the work of bit and spur maker Gary Wiggins who his mom got in contact with and just before his 18th birthday, he traveled to Brewster, Kansas, and built his 8th set of spurs in Wiggins shop. He returned five more times and built his first curb, snaffle and spade bit and learned how to engrave. Still early in his craftsmanship, he says his favorite thing to hear is how good his spurs fit, or a bridle rides. When asked about his deep steel engraving style he replies “I guess it’s the one plus to my mule headedness”.

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