Austin 'Slim' Green: Saddlemaker co-founded S.F. rodeo

Renowned artist said there was always room for improvement

| The Associated Press

12/25/2007 -

LAS CRUCES — Austin C. "Slim" Green is being remembered as a saddlemaker who created hand-tooled works of art and as an all-around cowboy who shared his knowledge with generations of New Mexicans.

Green, a former teacher in Tesuque and one of the founders of Santa Fe's rodeo, died Saturday at the age of 91, his family said. Services are pending.

Green's saddles have been featured at the Smithsonian Institution, the Professional Ropers and Cowboys Association Museum, the Gene Autry National Western Heritage Museum and Oklahoma's Elk City Butler Museum.

Movie stars, politicians and rodeo stars have collected his saddles.

"He was such a true Western gentleman who would fit into any culture, any time in the world," said Elaine Szalay of Mesilla, a longtime friend.

After living in Santa Fe for many years, Green moved to Las Cruces in 1996. A few years later, he donated his entire shop and tool collection to the New Mexico Farm and Ranch Heritage Museum, where it's currently on exhibit.

A profile at the museum states Green was a little uncomfortable when anyone called him a "master saddlemaker" or a "master leather carver."

Green thought there was always room for improvement when he was making saddles. "Any time you look at a saddle and say it's perfect, that you can't improve on it, ... just go crawl in a casket because you're not good for the human race," he once said.

Born in Ravi, Okla., on June 10, 1916, Green moved with his family in a covered wagon to Texas, where he learned to be a boy rodeo rider and roper. He apprenticed himself to the legendary saddlemaker Pop Bettes and made his first saddle in 1936.

He continued to make saddles while serving in the Army during World War II.

After the war, he moved to Santa Fe. He was one of the co-founders of Rodeo de Santa Fe, and he worked with the New Mexico Art Division Apprenticeship Program teaching up and coming saddlemakers.

He also taught leather crafts to children at Tesuque Elementary School in Santa Fe. "He taught a whole generation of us to ride. He was our favorite cowboy," said Mark Cook of Las Cruces, who learned horsemanship skills from Green as a child in Santa Fe.

Green is survived by his daughter Sue Ackleson and her husband, Scott; and step-grandchildren Jason Ackleson and his wife, Catherine, and Jennifer Wallace and her husband, Clayton. Green's wife, Grace, died in 2005.