OCR Text |
Show I r ' KoUTH AFRICAN RANCHER, Jan Theron, right, is looking over 4a saddle tree book with Richard Gilbert, who has 28 years ex-nerience ex-nerience as an electrician and electric plating specialist at Standard Stan-dard Saddle Tree Co. in Vernal. Theron designed his own ; awnjde trees for special saddles he plans to make. juth African rancher designs iecial saddle trees !23.year-old rancher from South shas been visiting Vernal the past jan Theron made a special trip lo get the Standard Saddle Tree any to make him several custom-isaddle custom-isaddle trees to be used for long L Arabian horses, jeron is e 6th generation rancher ;- 5000 acre ranch 60 miles north of fc uiontein in the Orange Free State ft Mb Africa. He has been in Texas 4 the past 10 months learning U.S. F Ms. His family originally came i France. (eride Arabian horses and we ride "k i hard," Theron said. A regular g saddle makes a rider too tired. K' feigning a saddle with a shorter t:' and throwing the weight of the r forward, a rider can ride much k without getting so tired, he said. '' bides Arabian horses we have Sill Si-ll : R: vtr about 500 head of Afrikander breed cattle. They are similar to the Brahama breed in the west," Theron said. The Orange Free State in the 1975 census had 17 million blacks and 4 million whites. Gold and diamond mining makes the area very prosperous, according to Theron. Our seasons are about the same as in Texas and Utah. We grow corn and alfalfa as our major crops. We receive about 20 inches of rain annually and we don't irrigate, said Theron. Theron is" taking his Standard Saddle Trees back to Texas where he will make his own saddles. He has been staying at the Lanhan Riley ranch in Aledo, Texas. In October he will return to South Africa and use some of the many ideas and items he has collected while visiting theU.S. on his own ranch. |