The Curious Art—and Origins—of Horsehair Hitching (Best of "The Secrets of Mastery," Season 1)

On this episode of "The Secrets of Mastery," we learn about an unusual folk art of the American West called horsehair hitching. Horsehair hitching involves the knotting of horsehair into complex patterns to make belts, necklaces, decorative walking sticks, and—of course—accessories for horses. 

Shoni Maulding, who has been practicing the craft for more than 30 years, talks with Craftmanship's Pauline Bartolone about its mysterious origins, how she’s found the patience to master this unique art form, and why a machine could never learn to hitch.

"The Secrets of Mastery” is a series of conversations with artisans about what it takes to master their craft, and what their journey has taught them. 

Craftsmanship Magazine is a multimedia publication about artisans and innovators who are creating a world built to last. For more Secrets of Mastery episodes, or more stories about craft, check out Craftsmanship.net. 

Transcript

NOTE: This is a computer-generated transcript; it may contain minor errors.

Pauline Bartolone: You're listening to The Secrets of Mastery, a series of conversations with artisans about what it takes to master their craft and what their journey has taught them. I'm Pauline Bartolone and this is a production of Craftsmanship Magazine, a multimedia publication about artisans and innovators who are creating a world built to last.

On this episode, we learn about a unique folk art in the American West called horsehair hitching. Hitching is basically the knotting of horsehair into complex patterns to make belts, necklaces, decorative walking sticks, and of course, accessories for horses. Shoni Moulding has been practicing this unusual craft for more than 30 years, and she's been known to spend 12 hours a day hitching horsehair.

Shoni lives on the Flathead Indian Reservation, just north of Missoula, Montana, but her ancestry is Shoshone. She mostly taught herself this craft at her husband and creative partner, Ron Moulding's suggestion. Ron saw it being done in prisons. He was a full time hobby director at Montana State Prison, where inmates were, and still are, some of the only people making and selling this folk art.

On this episode, we talk to Shoni about the craft's mysterious origins, about how she's found the patience to master this unique art form, and why a machine could never learn to hitch. Welcome to the show, Shoni. 

Shoni Maulding: Thank you. Thank you for inviting me. 

Pauline Bartolone: So Shoni, first, can you describe the craft of horsehair hitching, um, from what I understand?

It involves kind of weaving together bunches of horsehair strands, essentially using tight knots to make intricate designs. How do you describe horsehair hitching as it compares to sewing or knitting or other decorative arts? 

Shoni Maulding: It's definitely a knotting system. People who weave like to think of it as weaving, but it's not weaving.

There is braided horse hair, which is totally different from hitched horse hair. Braiding is like braiding a little girl's hair. Hitched horse hair is a series of knots. The process is as follows. I take 10 black, white horse hair tail, not the mane. The mane is too soft and too short. And I usually work with 27 to 29 inch long horse tail hair.

So, I twist those hairs into what's called a pull. Those pulls are knotted over nylon string, which is, which usually wound around a dowel. So I'm actually working with a tube. There's only two knots that do all the intricate designs with the hitched horse hair. And we call it the open hitched knot or the closed hitched knot.

And it's just a matter of manipulating which one, and that's how you get the designs. 

Pauline Bartolone: I'm curious about Horse hair, just as a material, can you tell me about like how delicate it is, how strong it may be, if there was anything that was surprising to you when you first started working with it? 

Shoni Maulding: Horsetail hair is very strong, especially when it's hitched.

There's no way that you can break it. It can be cut. Like, with a knife, but you literally cannot break it. Even a pull, one single pull of that 10 or 11 tail hairs is very, very strong. 

Pauline Bartolone: I wanted to ask you more about what you know about the origins of horsehair hitching, because you literally wrote a book, two books, about horsehair hitching.

So what do you know about how long have people been doing it? Who were the first people to start doing it? 

Shoni Maulding: When I started hitching, In the early 90s, the theory at that time was that it was the Moors who conquered Spain and that it kind of came from the Moors, but that really couldn't be verified anywhere, because the history of who started Hitching and how it.

It's very, very vague. During the Ottoman Empire, some of the people were using the method of hitched horse hair for these things called tugs that the main people in battle would put outside their tent. But the history of that is very vague, and it's not practiced at all in Turkey. There is a little bit of history about Old Mexico and hitching done there.

The main history where it's really known is in the western United States, inside prisons, done by inmates. So, the history is so vague, it doesn't really go to any culture. Some people think it's done by Native Americans, um, that that's the history. But it, it isn't that. But the primary place that you find hitched horse hair is from the old prisons, even the territorial prisons.

Charlie Russell would even write about it in some of his books about how, uh, Basically, a guy wrestled a horse and ended up twisting hairs at Deer Lodge, meaning that um, he was hitching horse hair or braiding horse hair in the prison. Wow. 

Pauline Bartolone: Yeah. Tell me, tell me what you know. I find it fascinating that this art form is practiced in prisons today.

What do you know about how long it's been? done in prisons, and which prisons do they do this craft? 

Shoni Maulding: Um, for sure at Montana State Prison, and then, um, also in Rawlins, Wyoming. There is a prison in Colorado, I'm not sure exactly what it was called. Walla Walla, Washington, um, Yuma, Arizona, and also Florence, Arizona.

Those are the main prisons. It could have been done in other prisons, you know, at a minimal amount. A lot of times, the inmates, if they get out and then re offend, they end up in a different prison. So the inmates that maybe learned, say, at Duralodge could end up in Rawlins, Wyoming. So it can be passed from Prison to prison by the inmates who were incarcerated in different prisons.

Pauline Bartolone: That's so interesting. I wonder why, uh, prisoners have picked up this craft. I mean, does it have anything to do with the time that they have to spend in prison? 

Shoni Maulding: Yeah, exactly. The hobby craft programs in prisons, and there is usually like leather work, beading, a lot of different kinds of hobby craft, and it's exactly that because people have time on their hands.

One thing that has really helped with the hobby craft is the inmates get paid for it. When they make it, um, usually at the prisons I'm familiar with, it has to be sent out immediately as soon as it's finished. But some of these prisons also have counters or little stores where they can sell. They're work out of whether it's crocheting or knitting or, you know, some of the things that we think of as more Western type crafts.

And so the inmates get a little bit of money for it. And sometimes, as with the hitched horse here, they get paid more for, say, a belt than they would for working in the kitchen or the infirmary, the different places that are jobs for inmates. And then, you know, there aren't enough jobs always in a prison for every inmate.

So Being able to sell the hobby craft or sending it out to friends and family who can sell it on the outside. So it is a form of, of income. 

Pauline Bartolone: People may wonder, you know, I mentioned that you live on the Flathead Indian Reservation in Montana. They may wonder whether this is a craft of Native Americans or Native people in the United States.

What do you know about that? 

Shoni Maulding: I do know that, um, all races of people that, that I know of have hitched. It's mostly been, I'm not politically correct, the white people and the Indians. Those are primarily the people that are known more for the hitched horse hair. But as far as a history of that being with the Indians, I'm not seeing that in any of the research and, and there is very little research on this.

But if you're on an Indian reservation, many people know what hitched horse hair is. 

Pauline Bartolone: Oh, interesting. Okay. It's just not something that has been done in their community for a long time. 

Shoni Maulding: It's so time intensive that it usually is not one of the hobby crafts that's continued after an inmate returns out of a prison.

And, uh, An inmate may teach like a family member or a friend on a reservation when they do get out, but it is very time intensive. And then trying to find the hair and that kind of thing. And then finding a market for it, for the amount of time. that you've actually put into doing, like a hitched belt.

There's a lot of other jobs and hobby crafts out there that pay better than the hitched horse hair. 

Pauline Bartolone: Um, well, you had mentioned that, you know, horse hair hitching takes a long time. And you, you can spend four to six weeks on, on one project, making a belt. Um, and you know, many hours a day, how many hours a day would you say you would spend on the hitching eight hours or more?

Shoni Maulding: A lot of times I'd spend more, maybe I'd spend like at least 10, maybe 12. When Ron was working. And he had commuting time. I'd maybe start, like, around 9. 30, and sometimes just go until, like, 9. 30 that night when he got back home. But you have to take breaks. There's no way you can sit and just continuously hitch.

So maybe I'd do 15, 20 minute breaks, maybe every hour, and then, of course, lunch, supper. It's just a matter of, like, sitting. That's not good for anybody to sit for a really long time. And in that amount of time If I did three inches that day, it was like That was huge. You know, bells and whistles go off because three inches, given the intricate patterns that I was doing, was huge.

Pauline Bartolone: Well, I mean, that's a lot of time. Ten, twelve hours a day, even with breaks, four to six weeks on a project. What gives you the patience to continue on to finish the project? 

Shoni Maulding: Well, that's a good question. I've learned that you can learn patience because I'm not a very patient person. But with hitched horse hair, I can be very patient.

It's just so amazing that such an amazing art form can be made from such a simple product of horse tail hair. So sometimes I just keep going because I want to see what's going to happen in that next half an inch. And I use graph paper for All of my patterns, and so using the graph paper makes a lot more intricate patterns, and this paper can maybe be four feet long, so to be able to To transfer something that's on paper just colored in with pencils into Something that's maybe only one three eighths inches wide when it's finished.

It is just incredible 

Pauline Bartolone: Yeah, it's a very visual. You must be a very visual person I mean you told me that you don't do anything for entertainment while you hitched horse hair Like you don't listen to music or listen to podcasts and some people may find that surprising given the number of hours it takes to finish a project.

I mean, how do you, can you kind of describe the scene of you hitching horse hair at home? Like how you stay entertained? 

Shoni Maulding: I think it's just the process. I've never thought about it as being entertainment before, but I think that The process of hitching is the entertainment. 

Pauline Bartolone: Well, I wanted to ask you, in terms of the products that you make, you know, the belts, um, the various accessories for horses, uh, the bridles, um, who, who are your clients who buy your materials?

Shoni Maulding: At first, I would have thought that it would be the ranchers, the cowboys. It's not for our experience. So I can only speak to our experience. People that see it as an art form. And they buy it because of that. They don't buy it because they're necessarily in the agricultural world or in the western world.

They see it as an art form. 

Pauline Bartolone: So not necessarily people who live in the west. Like all over the United States they may buy it? 

Shoni Maulding: Yes. Yeah. Cowboys don't buy it. Most cowboys that are working cowboys, they don't have the money to buy it. And they don't want to do it because they know how time intensive it is.

They're out and Well, 

Pauline Bartolone: do you mind if we talk a little bit about economics? I mean, we've talked about the hours that you put in, you know, four to six weeks on a project. Does this make sense economically for you? Is this a good living for you? Or is this kind of a labor of love because you just love the craft?

Shoni Maulding: It's a good supplement income, but as far as doing it, And doing it full time and expecting to pay all the bills and health insurance and say if that person had a house mortgage and all of that, no, it would not be a livable income. A lot of it gets back to just educating people because people don't understand why it's expensive because they don't understand the process and how long it takes.

Pauline Bartolone: So you've been doing it for over 30 years. Why do you continue doing it, if not for economic reasons? 

Shoni Maulding: It, it's the fascination with the horse hair. It, it just gets back to that and, and what you can accomplish with it. And then there are so few people that hitch horse hair that aren't in prison. Um, so, for people, like, to even find us and then to want a product, um, the last ten years, it's been really nice to work with people that, especially, like, there was a guy in Tucson whose horse had died, and he was so grateful.

When he saw his belt and then sometimes we will send pictures of the process Also, so they can understand a little bit of that We've made friendships over the years with some of these people I think it's because they're they're grateful and then when we get to make an art form We get pretty excited when we think of a new project and the different things that we can Incorporate, you know get your mind going 

Pauline Bartolone: You've been doing this for longer than 30 years.

I mean, what does it take to become a master at a craft like that? 

Shoni Maulding: I would not be able to call myself a master because I think that's in the arrogant stage. So when people go around saying, oh, I'm a master hitched horse hair person, it's like. Oh, so you're calling yourself that. When did that happen? So many people call somebody else master and then, you know, whether it's in the knitting world, it just isn't a sight up in Canada to be in that category.

Say a master knitter or a master at crocheting or those, the different fiber arts. You have to do a two year program with five very specific points, and you have to pass. You're judged on each of those five points before you can call yourself a master knitter. Well, there's no such thing in this whole hitched horse hair world where I have to Past like five different things in two years to be called that.

Pauline Bartolone: So there's kind of like no definition. I mean, to be doing it as long as you have, um, and to do the level of intricate designs that you were doing, I mean, what does it take? Does it take patience? Does it take, uh, visual sensibility? Does it take ingenuity? 

Shoni Maulding: It takes time. And then also the things that you just mentioned, it takes time.

Time, you know, I could have been doing this for 32 years, but maybe make one belt a year. Now would that make me a master? Or would it make me as good as what I am, what I can produce? The answer would be no, versus maybe somebody in five or ten years, if they were just very intense at it and worked at it, they could be in that category.

I hate to say this, but there's so many variables with that also. You 

Pauline Bartolone: know, in an era where things are increasingly made by machine. What would you say to someone who says, you know, why not program a machine to hitch horse hair? Would anything be lost if that were to happen? 

Shoni Maulding: Yes, a lot of things would be lost, but knowing the process, I think it would be very difficult to program a machine to do it.

Plus, it gets back to educating the public. About the whole process of the hitching and yes, maybe, you know, if somebody could figure it out, would it be lucrative for them to even? Do it with a machine. I don't even see how it could be done by a machine, actually, because of the process. 

Pauline Bartolone: The dexterity that's needed or, um, like the maneuvering or the detail.

Shoni Maulding: Working with the different, the lengths of the poles, when I said that I could only go about four to five inches with one pole, there's so many variables with that. And then would people even want to buy it? I know there are are fiber pieces that are machine woven that look like horse hair. Of course, that's a lot cheaper.

But it's the real die hards, the people that really look at it as an art form. They're not going to buy that woven fiber thing to pretend that it's hitched horse hair. They want the real thing. I don't know if it could be done by machine and then if, if it would even sell after that. 

Pauline Bartolone: Well, Shoni Malding, thank you so much for joining us.

Shoni Maulding: It's been a pleasure. 

Pauline Bartolone: And that's it for this edition of the Secrets of Mastery. You can check out Shoni Malding's work on her website, HitchedHorseHair. com. That's it. HitchedHorseHair. com You can buy one of her books there, too. Hitched Horsehair, The Complete Guide for Self Learning. Music in this series is from Blue Dot Sessions.

For more Secrets of Mastery episodes or more stories about craft, check out crossmanship. net. That's crossmanship. net. You can find us on Substack, too. Thanks for listening.