Master saddle maker brings local influences to 99th Old Settlers’Rodeo
KAY ELLINGTON | THE TEXAS SPUR
A quarter of a century ago, young Will Burgess had graduated from Graham High School in 1985 and headed to Weatherford College, where he stayed for two years. But college never quite captured his imagination.
What did intrigue him was that he had a buddy who took saddle making from Texas State Technical Institute in Amarillo— and the buddy set up shop in the back of Will’s father’s farm store in Bunger, Texas, a hamlet eight miles from Graham.
In due time, that’s how Burgess became one of the most esteemed saddle makers for Texas ranchers and cowboys.
“I never had a class,” Burgess told the newspaper. “I learned from my buddy and would go visit with the old saddle makers and learn from them. In the beginning, I would go to horse sales, and buy saddles, and tear them apart to see how they were made.”
The custom saddle Burgess has just jow completed, valued at $3,250, will go to the 2022 Motley-Dickens rodeo performer named as Top Hand. The honor is selected by anonymous and confidential judges.
Dickens County Judge Kevin Brendle, a member of the Motley-Dickens Old Settlers Rodeo and Reunion committee, acknowledged Burgess as a well-respected and appreciated saddle maker. If you’re a part of the ranching life in this part of the country, you’re familiar with Burgess’s saddles. The Pitchfork Ranch was one of the first ranches to ever order one of his saddles, Burgess said.
Burgess describes his typical client as “a good old working cowboy.”
“Cowboys are my best teachers,” he said. “They tell me what I need to change and I do my best to adjust to what they need. Without their input, I wouldn’t have lasted.”
His own saddle these days, when he’s horseback himself? It’s the first saddle he ever made, said Burgess.
One of the old saddle makers whom Burgess learned from was Tooter Cannon of Dickens, Brendle said, “You can see a lot of the Tooter Cannon influence in the saddle that Will designed for the Motley Dickens Old Settlers.”
The saddle shop on Highway 82 in Dickens, now unoccupied, once belonged to Tooter Cannon. According to Brendle, at one point, Texas Tech University had discussed acquiring the saddle shop and moving it to its frontier village at the National Ranching Heritage Center.
Burgess himself is no stranger to Roaring Springs and the Motley Dickens Old Settlers Reunion and Rodeo. His own father announced the rodeo in the late 1970s.
“My family had some really good friends in the area, Dawn and Jerry Slaton,” he said. “Jerry was the ag teacher at Patton Springs for years. They had four boys, and my parents had four boys, and when we got together, we would just have a great time.”
In the ’80s and ’90s, Burgess said, a lot of his buddies from this part of the country would enjoy going out to Roaring Springs for the rodeo.
All total, Will Burgess has made 364 custom saddles. It’s a slow and methodical craft. He said he averages 15 saddles a year, and his turnaround time for a custom saddle order these days is one year.
The 99th Motley Dickens Old Settlers Reunion and Rodeo runs from the afternoon of August 25 through the evening of August 27, and all events take place at the rodeo grounds in Roaring Springs.
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