Wild about Wildrags

Regular people call them scarves, cowboys call ‘em wildrags.
I call them a necessity.



A wildrag is a functional piece of gear for a cowboy. It keeps the trail dust off his face. It can tie down his hat in a storm. It can be used as a towel, a sling, a hobble, a napkin, a water filter, even a disguise should one desire to rob a bank.

Me? I use mine mainly to stay warm, indoors and out.



My favorite wildrags come from a place called Horsewright Clothing & Tack Co. in Tehachapi, California. These swatches of love are 38” square and made of a soft and luxurious sandwashed silk. At this size, there’s enough fabric to style and tie it any way you’d like.



Horsewright also sells wildrag slides, like this hollowed out piece of deer antler. (It’s a safety thing - if you tie a knot in your wildrag and get dumped off your horse, you might hang yourself on the saddle horn on the way down.)

I have two Horsewright wildrags so far, in sage and in sky blue. They come in 22 other colors! And as fate would have it, when I went over to their website to grab a link for this post, I discovered their wildrags are on sale - $25 instead of the regular $29. I’m going to take that as a sign that it’s time to order my spring collection.

Not that it’s spring yet. Spring was last week.
We’re back to winter today.




Of course my wildrag was around my neck keeping me warm while I was outside doing chores. Did I mention that a wildrag also makes a handy camera cover in a storm? And a nifty carryall for a loose flake of hay? And an emergency kleenex? And of course they're washable.

I'm thoroughly hooked on wildrags. To see what other folks are hooked on this week, check out the links at Julia's Hooked on Fridays post.