By Nick Pernokas

A lot of gimmicks come and go in the horse business. Many of them don’t stand the test of time necessary to see if they work in the equine world, and they disappear. Tonight, I’m holding one in my hand that I think is here to stay. I’m going to call it a long overdue innovation, instead of a gimmick, to give it the dignity it deserves. But first, let me tell you where it came from. 

Jim Rider was raised on a farm in Oklahoma. His grandfather instilled a love of horses in him; Jim remembers learning to ride bareback under his grandfather’s supervision. 

“I’ve always been interested in leather and tack,” says Jim.  “I guess I’ve got kind of a disease. I can’t look at anything that doesn’t work perfectly and not try to figure out a way to make it work better.” 

In 1965, Jim’s dad ran into some problems on his Oklahoma ranch when his cattle became ill. The herd was wiped out and he decided to change careers. The family, including 15-year-old Jim, moved to Pueblo, Colorado, and Jim’s dad began to drive a truck. 

In the early 70s, Jim began a 20-year career on the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad as a head brakeman and rear brakeman. One of Jim’s jobs was to watch for any problems that developed in the train, like hotboxes and sparks. A compromised car would be removed from the train immediately and a repair crew would be sent out to fix it. Jim viewed the mountainous West on a daily basis as the train climbed from Pueblo to Minturn, Colorado. At Minturn, the crew would take another train back to Pueblo. 

While working on the railroad, Jim did some tack repair and even learned to build saddles from Frank McConnell on his down time. Jim also started colts and team roped. Around 1988, he bought a horse that was inclined to run off. The bit that Jim found to put some rate into him would make him throw his head. Jim went to his garage, gathered up some bar stock and built a new bit that worked perfectly. Jim thought he might be on to something, and he called the Trammell Bit Company in Van Alstyne, Texas. At the time, Trammell produced a lot of good quality bits that were used by many horsemen. The company tried to discourage Jim because they had a lot of folks bringing them prototypes and they thought that they’d seen everything. Jim drove to Texas the next weekend anyway.  

Jim walked into Trammell’s offices and the manager told him that since Jim was there, he’d take a look at the bit. 

“He said, ‘Man, this is great. Can you make two or three variations of it?’” 

The manager told him that he thought he could make a little money on his design and Jim headed back to Colorado to get to work. Jim called Earl Blevins, of Blevins Manufacturing, to ask him about the process of getting a patent. 

Unfortunately, when the owner of Trammell got sick and the company was restructured, Jim’s bit fell by the wayside. 

A couple of years later, Jim grew tired of working on the railroad. 

“It was beautiful, but after you’ve seen so many pine trees and so many mountains,” says Jim, “and the weather, when it’s 60 below zero, you get enough of that real quick.” 

Oil field-related businesses were booming in Oklahoma in 1991. Jim took a job working in metal fabrication in Oklahoma City. He worked in quality control for United Engines; the company built trailers for the fracking industry. Jim was exposed to many contemporary industrial processes there, like lasers and plasma welding. This was to serve him well in his next career. 

In 2014, Jim started thinking about the problem people had with losing Blevins buckle sleeves off of their saddles. Many people didn’t use fender hobble straps, especially if the fenders had been raised high for kids. Jim thought that he could come up with a solution. 

Jim knew that saddlemakers would be reluctant to use a new buckle, if it was too different from what they were using and what was compatible with their designs. Blevins buckles were the gold standard for stirrup buckles, so they had to work in that manner. Jim worked from the angle of having an easy-to-use product that could be retrofitted into existing stirrup leathers and saddles. Most importantly, it had to be used the same way. Jim’s initial designs involved a lock on the side of the buckle. He could not make it work easily and he thought about it every day during his Oklahoma City commute. His thoughts became prayers and after a month of this he had a breakthrough that he can remember vividly. 

“I’m looking at this big metal building through my peripheral vision, and God says, ‘You’re trying to make that lock on the wrong side.’” 

Within a week, Jim had a prototype locking-stirrup adjustment buckle that worked. 

“I tell people that I take no credit for this. I give all the credit to Earl Blevins and the good Lord.” 

Four or five prototypes followed, and Jim tried them on saddles that were being used. He had to make them usable, even when the existing holes in stirrup leathers were off a little. 

Jim spoke with the Blevins Company to see if they’d be interested in producing the buckles. At the time, they were covered up with work and couldn’t add another product. He then reached out to another company, to modify a sleeve and weld a locking tab on it. They also made a stainless-steel tongue with the added pin. Later, when stainless steel became hard to find during COVID, Jim found a company to laser cut the stainless-steel tongues for him and he finished shaping them and added the pins himself. He made the pins tighter in the tongue, so they would be harder to dislodge. 

In 2016, Jim began to produce his buckles for the public. His first big break was when Martha Josey tried a couple of pairs and loved them. She went to Circle Y and asked them to use the buckles on her saddles, which she endorsed. Martha saw it as a way to keep the stirrups on the saddles at her schools and make them safer. Soon, she was including them in her videos. 

“Martha has probably been my biggest advocate,” remembers Jim. 

Circle Y began using the buckles on all of their Reinsman saddles, which their endorsees ride. The exposure for Jim was significant. 

In 2018, Jim moved back to Pueblo to concentrate on “High Tech Tack,” and his buckles full time. He started towing a box trailer filled with his product to equine events. This also allowed him to have a shop, so he could install his buckles on customer’s saddles on location. 

The buckles can easily be mounted in the same holes as a traditional Blevins buckle. An added pin on the back of the tongue easily locks into a spring steel flap on the sleeve. A tab on the spring makes undoing the sleeve a breeze. Jim has recently improved the sleeves, so the leather can be replaced if it ever wears out. 

The last Dallas Market was good to Jim. He added many smaller custom saddleries to his large accounts like Circle Y and Martin Saddlery. Since then, he has been hustling to keep up with the demand for his buckles. Both of Jim’s brothers help him in the assembly process, so it truly is a family business. Jim is facing the realization that he’s outgrowing his current shop and he’s looking for a larger one. 

And Jim’s latest innovation? All he is saying is that it will involve an app on your phone.  

To find out what Jim’s working on now, you can go to  hightechtack.com, call him at 405-361-7492 or check out High Tech Tack on Instagram and Facebook.