The King of Roping Saddles

Sat, 19 Jun 2010 23:30:59 +0000

Many people consider Billy Cook the king of roping saddle makers. There can at least be no doubt that he is a legendary roping saddle maker.
After a stint in the military, Billy Cook opened a shop in Greenville, Texas. A short time later Billy and an old friend from the military, Bill Potts joined him. Together they produced two saddle brands, Billy Cook and Potts Longhorn. The Billy Cook brand was the top line and Longhorn the secondary line.
The Billy Cook saddles featured premium trees, hand tooling, and hand sewn rigs to skirts. Longhorn saddles were machine sewn, featured synthetic wool, and lesser quality trees.
Tooling patterns were often pressed by a huge press, which is what made a lot of those saddles really hard and stiff. The people who worked there were proud of their work and made one of the best production saddles of that time. Jay Lynn Gore was the head tooler there for many years. The tooling look of Billy Cook saddles was largely the work of Jay Lynn.

Billy managed the operation himself for many years. He designed all the saddles, made patterns, and had a complete set of dies for each design.
The company later set up corporate offices in Dallas. After the death of Bill Potts in the late 1980's, the company fell upon hard times. The management filed for bankruptcy, and the company went up for auction. The sale was made to the parent company of Action, Simco, and Tex Tan saddles.

The sale of the company included the Billy Cook name, although Billy never actually sold the Billy Cook name. It was included in the terms of the bankruptcy sale. Genuine Billy Cook saddles are branded "Billy Cook Maker", and the first two digits before the model number, located under the fender, indicate what year the saddle was made. Saddles with this stamp were made in the Billy Cook shops either in Texas or Oklahoma.
In 1992 Billy Cook set up shop in Sulphur, Oklahoma. Although now in his late 70's, the legendary roping saddle king still plies his trade there.

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The King of Roping Saddles