Did anyone on this forum know Garland Seggerman from Albuquerque, NM?

Please contact me if you did - off the forum...

He died June 2, 2017

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/abqjournal/obituary.aspx?pid=185773154

https://vimeo.com/154822329


Brian

http://garlandseggerman.com/

An online photo album I found.

Thanks, Doc,


I did not know about this album. I have quite a few letters, scroll drawings and images from him over the years. I've saved them all.

I ran across them last night while cleaning up my office and spent some hours remembering.


I was 18 or 19 when I met him, he was 27 or 28... he was one of those rare true friends.

The kind you are lucky to have 3 or 4 of during a lifetime...


I did find a statement about him on another website that describes who he was to the proverbial "T".


"His work was fantastic and his word was good."


Brian

Hello Brian,
I did not have the pleasure of meeting your friend Garland, God rest his soul.
Garland looks like quite a guy and a very skilled craftsman.
Easy to see why you were friends because he made such wonderful jockey saddles and jockey "bats."
They were part of our earlier days and brought back lots of old memories to both of us I'm sure.
Before seeing the video posted by Doc Martin I had never seen a jockey exercise saddle with Western tooling.
That would have been quite a conversation piece in my day in England.

Yeah, we ran together for quite a few years when we were still pups... almost got ourselves killed a coupla times.

Garland was a bit of a pool hustler, and some guys didn't take that too well. I was always the winner for the first few games until he found a sucker. (and I really never was much of pool player, so I had to stay sober)

Learned a LOT from him (besides driving the getaway car) including making jockey saddles & crops. I am sitting here looking at a leftover from a batch we made in Phoenix in the early 70's. He was really world famous among the jockeys and trainers. Lots of his saddles and bats were in the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont.

He settled for about a year in the early 70's at the Stockton Fairgrounds and I was living and working at the Pleasanton Fairgrounds. Both of us living in tackrooms... I'd heard about him and went to find him. Came back every weekend for the year he was there.

Some years later I moved to Lathrop for 20 years, then Mexico for 7 years and finally Stockton where I've been for the last 17 years... of all the places on the planet - still dunno why? Garland kept in contact and stopped by when he could all those years. (except the time I spent in Mexico)

He probably spent some time at every racetrack in the USA at one time or another. He talked about time he spent in New York, Pennsylvania, Florida, etc.

I first met him at Pleasanton, then Bay Meadows, Golden Gate Fields, and Los Alamitos. I'll remember a week long party we had at Bay Meadows ('till we ran outta money) for the rest of my life!

He went on to become a damn good bootmaker as well, starting with jockey boots and branching out into "cowboy" boots. We were a few thousand miles apart by that time, so I never learned those skills.

I only ever exercised a few racehorses at the track myself - weighed just under 120 when I was 16 or 17 years old. Too heavy to ride a real race. Did get to ride a few match races out in the desert around Tucson though.


Not many on this forum know of our past "incarnations"

And we had a lot of them, not just one or two...


Brian

John were your "flapping gaffs" like a match race? Where the winner gets to keep the losers horse.

Or just kinda hidden betting races?


B.

Brian Marshall said:

John were your "flapping gaffs" like a match race? Where the winner gets to keep the losers horse.

Or just kinda hidden betting races?


B.

Click to expand...

No Brian, flapping gaffs were unlicensed racecourses and the horses didn't have to be registered thoroughbreds and the jockeys were not supposed to be Jockey Club or National Hunt Club licensed. Sometimes "ringers" or registered horses and jocks would creep in.
They were mostly organized and run by a group of illegal bookmakers on a makeshift racecourse in the sticks.
The official Jockey Club or National Hunt would occasionally hold match (two horse only) races at the licensed racecourses.
Usually as the last race after the official days handicap race card as an extra attraction.
Horses, jockeys and owners had to be officially registered and approved for these matches just like for regular races.
Match races usually had prize money funded by the individual horse owners and not the for title to the losing horse, at least in England.
There were also "Claiming Races" (any number of horses) where the winning horse had to be available for sale at the stated claim price.