The Beginning of the Californio Bridlehorse Association

Recalled by Linda Turner
Edited by Bruce Sandifer 

The mission on the CBA website states “The International Association for the Preservation of Early Californio Bridlehorse and Stockmanship (IAPECBS), doing business as The Californio Bridlehorse Association (CBA) was formed to preserve a unique style of horsemanship and stockmanship developed during the Mission era of California. These methods became an essential part of California and western U.S. history. The techniques and equipment used by the Californios were passed down within family traditions and so secretly guarded they were almost lost to the pages of history. Through the efforts of the CBA these traditions will be kept alive in their purest form.” 

Bruce Sandifer’s determination to understand the style of stockmanship used in California’s mission and rancho periods is the basis for the CBA and eventually the Skills.  In retrospect, the CBA came from humble beginnings with friends who came together to learn and to help Bruce spread his knowledge about a practical style of horsemanship.

Bruce had become discouraged working in the hurry-up-and-make-a-buck horse industry.  As a young man he had been intrigued by the vaquero style of horsemanship he had read about in Ed Connell’s books.  That style was on his mind when he left his job of training and cowboying, move to California and began to research the techniques and equipment used by the rancho/mission era vaquero.  Bruce studied accounts of people who worked with and observed the early vaqueros.  He interviewed men like Ray Ordway, whose father had ridden with some of the last rancho period vaqueros.  He found an ally in bit maker Bruce Haener who had been repairing old vaquero bits and eventually copying them.   Haener had the knowledge of the mechanics of those bits but needed Sandifer to experiment and test the equipment on his own horses.   Together the Bruces were able to discover the purpose of every nuance of the spade bit and its proper use.  Bruce Sandifer, who was already an accomplished braider of traditional Californio gear, recognized how the hackamore, when used properly, would logically advance into the spade bit. He focused on the style used by the California vaqueros which existed for a short time period before its expansion into other regions of the west where the spade bit and how it was used began to be modifi

In 2010 Bruce Sandifer was content to teach a few students at his home near Santa Barbara while he continued to research the history of the pure California vaquero system.  Unknown to him, his little sanctuary was to be upended. 

In 2010 I had become frustrated with how I was told to use the snaffle bit on a mare I had recently started.  My gut feeling was pulling my horse’s head around was getting both my horse, Magic, and I stuck.  I decided to give the hackamore a try with some immediate success, until pulling her head around in the hackamore began to create new problems and frustrations.  I didn’t know anyone near my home in Colorado familiar with a hackamore.  I mentioned to a friend, Karen Ross, that I would like to find a clinic where I could learn the proper use of the hackamore.  Karen didn’t know of anyone since Richard Caldwell had recently quit teaching, but she would ask her friend Linda Hayden if she could suggest someone for me.  Linda got back to Karen in March of 2011, a week before I was heading with Magic to Parkfield, California for my annual V6 ride.   Linda Hayden had never seen or met Bruce but heard he was a good hackamore man.  Since I was already hauling to California, Karen encouraged me to go a few days early and check Bruce out.  I like to say that Linda Hayden is the Godmother of the CBA for, without her insight, we may never have found Bruce.

I called Bruce and arranged to meet him for a lesson before I headed to the V6.  I’m confident Bruce and I can expand with humor on out first meeting:  I thought Bruce was a grump and Bruce told Ute I’d not be back after one day.    My first lesson with Bruce went something like this:  Bruce said, “let me see you ride.”  After less than five minutes Bruce flatly said, “get off.”  Bruce got on Magic with no adjustments to the saddle and in ten minutes, while rolling a cigarette, had Magic elevated, smooth, and responding to signals I couldn’t detect.  I was awestruck.  I stayed three days with Bruce and arrived at my V6 ride two days late.  Those three days with Bruce, he yelled, we laughed, he yelled some more and, in addition to the respect I had for him, I gained a friend. 

When I returned to Colorado, Karen was anxious to hear what I thought of Bruce as she had been interested in the correct use of the spade bit.  I couldn’t begin to explain what I had witnessed.  I was anxious to go back to California to learn more from Bruce and asked if Karen would like to go with me.   Karen had recently retired from traveling with her business “Prairie Karen” and was not interested leaving home.  However, she was all for hosting Bruce to come to Colorado to give lessons.   

Bruce was not keen on leaving California to teach but Karen’s tenacity won Bruce over.   June 20, 2011 Bruce traveled to Kiowa, Colorado for the first of many workshops.  Between Karen’s local friends, people on the Prairie Karen website interested in the Californio style, and friends of Bruce’s like Cindy and Bruce Haener, the workshop amassed enough students to keep Bruce busy for a week, 6-8 hours each day.  Evenings were filled with food, beverages and talks about how Sandifer and Haener had de-engineered the spade bit to find a style based on the balance of both the bit and the rider. 

The excitement of learning this unique style of horsemanship was contagious.  People attending Karen’s first workshop were anxious to come back and as word spread, there were more who wanted to learn from Bruce.  Another workshop was filled the following month.  Wally and Karen Ross understood Bruce was teaching a unique style of horsemanship and that style was on the verge of being lost because of disuse.  Those late evenings after lessons when most of the students had gone to bed Karen, Wally and Bruce planned how to best promote the continued legacy of the bridle horse style developed during the mission/rancho era of California.  Wally became the secretary of the future CBA and handled the paperwork to form the nonprofit organization called The International Association for the Preservation of Early Californio Bridlehorses and Stockmanship (IAPECBS), doing business as The Californio Bridlehorse Association (CBA). 

With the growing interest in Bruce’s “new” style, Karen easily filled a third week of lessons that September.   The late-night discussions began to focus on the concern there were no places for the public to see horses being used in the California vaquero style of jaquima to 2-rein to spade bit.  While Karen’s workshops in Colorado had sparked a huge interest locally, it was agreed that, to keep the tradition alive, people of California needed to understand its value and its relevance to their history.  The best way to demonstrate those values to the California public was to have an event where horses could only be ridden in hackamore, 2-rein, or straight up in the bridle.  A venue for our event was found in Santa Ynez.   Karen and Wally sold their home in Kiowa, Colorado and rented a place in Buelton, California.   Bruce figured out divisions and event descriptions, judging guidelines, worried about cattle and the February weather.   I traveled to Buelton every few weeks to help Karen and Wally with the logistics to host the event.  Our first Early Californio Skills of the Rancho was held February 8th 2013, six months after the vision of a competition in California was first realized.  We could not have accomplished this without the friends who came together determined to make the Skills a success.  Many of our vendors from the first event best expressed what we had accomplished: there was finally a competition that showed off the pure California vaquero style working jaquima to freno! 

Beginners like me and horsemen/stockmen with lifelong experience found Bruce because of a search for a better way to be with the horse.  Some of today’s judges and Pros, Rick Walt; Jeff Derby; Heather Korneman and Wacy Korneman, attended Bruce’s first workshops in 2011.  They have been been involved and crucial in the continuation of the Skills.  CBA continues to gain a committed and knowledgeable group who work closely with Bruce to promote this system and demonstrate its relevance in today’s ranching world, keeping it alive in its purest form.

Unknown to Bruce and me at the time, my trip with Magic to ride with Bruce April 6th 2011, created the spark that grew into the CBA.  There were a lot of people in search of a better way to work with horses and livestock.  Bruce had already figured out a better way and we were excited to tap into what he was practicing.  I sat down with Ray Ordway at Vaquero Heritage Days in 2012 and he told me “there are a lot of guys who think they are riding in this old way but Bruce is the only one who is doing it right.”  Ray was pleased the CBA was carrying on the vaquero traditions he and his father had used.   Thank you, Bruce, for continuing to share their ways on your journey.