Raspberry Social: Telling the Ray Holes story as Cena Bell Estill Holes

I own the last saddle made by my grandfather, Ray Holes. He had been retired from saddle making for several years but surprised me with my first new saddle in 1989. I’d ridden Ray Holes Saddles all my life of course, but all were well used.  
My saddle doesn’t have a number. Grandpa didn’t think his craftsmanship was worthy of registering it in the shop’s saddle journal. But whenever I saddle up, other riders say, “Who made your saddle? It’s beautiful.”  
When the museum director approached me about someone acting as a living history character representing the Ray Holes brand, I volunteered to be Ray’s mother, my great-grandmother Cena Bell Estill Holes—Feisty Woman of Faith, Teacher, Homesteader, Mother, and Nurse. The Ray Holes Saddle story begins with her.  
She was born in 1884, one of 12 children. Her family traveled by covered wagon from California to Washington state when she was 17. She taught school for six years, beginning at 19. At 21, barely 5 feet tall, she filed for her own homestead—13 years before women got the right to vote and one year before she married Great Grandpa Bert Holes.  
A few years later, when polio paralyzed her son’s (my grandfather Ray Holes) legs, she loaded her little boy onto a train and traveled from Washington state to Missouri seeking a polio specialist.  
My grandfather Ray Holes always shuddered when he remembered eating “baked bean sandwiches” ... “all the way to Missouri!” (No refrigeration, no restaurants, and little 2 money). Grandpa also never forgot his helpless hurt as he lay in the hospital bed and the Polio Doctor studied his little crippled legs. The doctor told Cena Bell, “Your son will never walk.”  
Cena scooped up her boy and left the hospital. More bread baked and beans smashed—and a long train ride back to Washington. Back home on the farm, Cena devised a regime of passive exercise, heat, and massage therapy—rubbing her son’s polio-stricken legs and feet to keep them from atrophying. She sewed buttons on the knees of his pants so it would be more comfortable to pull himself up than to crawl. And his dad, Bert, built a leather harness for Penny, their big black dog. Young Ray could drape himself across the dog’s shoulders, hanging onto the harness. Penny dog became his “walker.”  
Ray’s family moved to a small ranch above the Salmon River. The ruggedness of the country is often a trial for a man with two sound legs. Due to his physical impairment, he spent most of his outdoor time on horseback for the next fourteen years. He learned much about the good and bad points of equipment. He said, “My hips,” damaged by polio, “tired quite easily on long rides and to this I give a great deal of credit for my efforts in making more comfortable saddles.”  
When Ray started to build his first saddle at age 23 in 1934, he had never been in a saddle shop or observed a saddle being made. Many confusing problems had to be worked out the hard way. But he solved the issues and by 1945, he was so busy, he placed an ad in “Western Horseman” magazine which read, “Honest fellows. We’re swamped. No delivery less than 8 months. Please order only if a necessity.”  
The Holes family saddle making legacy was continued by my parents, Gerald and Ellamae Holes who retired from the Saddle Shop in 2001.  
Our family still manufactures the leather care recipes of Ray and Gerald Holes: www.rayholesleathercare.com.  The Ray Holes saddle on exhibit at St. Gertrudes Museum is owned by my sister, Carol Holes Hernandez. Our grandfather, Ray Holes, built this saddle during the early years (pre-1945) of his saddle-making business for his father-in-law, John (Johnny) Baer. Ray said that he had plenty of time to tool the ornate saddle because his fledgling saddlemaking business “wasn’t very busy yet.” Carol is the fourth generation Baer Holes family member to ride the saddle.  
On August 6th, I’ll be standing by that saddle at the Raspberry Social, channeling Ray’s feisty mother, Cena Bell Estill Holes, who lived until age 97. I look forward to sharing her with you!