A background in metalworking and expertise working with horses led Rod Teuscher to begin a enterprise making bits and spurs. In 1989, he moved to Gainesville, Texas, and opened his store. Photos: RT Bit and Spur
If you happen to watch sufficient Westerns, you may suppose yanking a horse’s reins a technique or one other is one of the best ways to direct your steed. However like many issues in Hollywood, that’s simply one other factor they bought fallacious.
Rod Teuscher has been fabricating bits and spurs—components of the navigation system that riders use to direct horses—for nearly 40 years. Situated in Gainesville, Texas, proper off I-35 between Dallas/Fort Price and Oklahoma Metropolis, RT Bit and Spur is a vacation spot for horse riders, trainers, and even polo gamers in search of one thing particular to assist them enhance their horsemanship.
For these not acquainted with horse driving, a bit is the mouthpiece meeting that applies stress to components of the horse’s mouth, just like the tongue and the jaw bones. A rider can manipulate the bit to information the horse.
Teuscher mentioned {that a} bit will be any form and any thickness. As an example, If the bit has a swung-back design, the rider has a slower launch, and a straight-up design gives for a quicker launch.
“I’ve bought world champions on each nook the place I stay, and these guys have such a really feel after they journey that they’ll inform if a bit is 1/8 in. off the place it needs to be,” Teuscher mentioned.
As a horse will get “damaged,” to make use of the coaching time period, the rider may want to make use of completely different bits. That’s why whenever you stroll right into a horse’s rack room, you’re more likely to see bits hung all around the room.
“You get these bits, the place some are simply primary, however others are extra extreme. It doesn’t imply that you’re hurting the horse, however you are able to do extra with the horse with much less motion of the bit,” he mentioned. “You may get to the purpose the place you may have the reins in your hand and also you increase the hand half of an inch, and the horse will reply.”
Most individuals know what spurs are. Discovered on riders’ boots, additionally they are used to direct horses. Teuscher mentioned that these aren’t designed to hurt the animals however reasonably urge them with a slight nudge of the heel.
Teuscher has been making bits and spurs for horse lovers since 1986. The store has gotten to the purpose that it now employs six different impartial contractors, along with himself, simply to maintain up with orders. Three individuals are devoted to including silver accents to each bits and spurs.
Teuscher mentioned {that a} close by store plasma-cuts plenty of bits and spur components for him, however these orders normally contain multiples of the identical half. To assist with the prototypes and one-off tasks, RT Bit and Spur bought an OMAX ProtoMAX compact, self-contained waterjet chopping system 4 years in the past.
A waterjet is used to chop out most of the metallic items discovered within the bits and spurs made by Teuscher and his crew.
The waterjet is used to chop supplies like delicate metal and silver in thicknesses sometimes ¼ to three/8 in., however Teuscher added that he has used it to chop materials as thick as 0.5 in. He mentioned the nonthermal chopping is sweet for the job as a result of it doesn’t blacken or harden the fabric edges.
Teuscher mentioned that if you happen to present up at a horse driving occasion these days, you may see 30 to 40 purveyors of bits and spurs. Even on this crowded discipline, he’s assured that RT Bit and Spur’s popularity stands out. After 40 years, individuals know he is aware of horses.
That’s why he’s nonetheless supplying primary gear together with the extra refined and complex items. He could possibly be strictly concentrating on huge spenders, however he likes working with everybody, together with the assistant trainers and people new to horses.
“Once I was first making bits, I wished to make them in order that they labored correctly. I wished it to have a great stability and really feel,” Teuscher mentioned.
Success, after all, typically follows good work. You simply need to know tips on how to gently information the enterprise with a talented and regular hand.
