Tom Smith makes his living as a construction engineer, but his heart belongs to rodeo and the cowboy way of life.  He has competed as a bareback rider at both the professional and amateur level but having chosen a path with other priorities and responsibilities he now pursues his dreams through the pen and western art.

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Pete Hennessy was born the son of a railroad man in the “ Silver City of the South Pacific” Sydney Australia. In the era of Pete’s childhood bakeries and dairies still delivered milk and bread in insulated horse drawn wagons. The clip clopping of the Clydesdale’s hooves up the street would send young Pete running to the curb. The deliverymen would place him on the back of the horses and with great pride he would follow the route. The “horse crazy” boy found himself a job and with saved earnings bought his first horse at the age of fourteen. He worked long hard hours in order to purchase feed and tack.

It was during a traveling Wild West Show that Pete got his first taste of rodeo. Under the big top tent, he climbed on a bull and was promptly thrown over the fence. Pete was hooked. He joined “The Metropolitan Rough Riders”. At the age of sixteen he was competing across Australia in bareback, saddle bronc, and steer riding. Needing to supplement his rodeo winnings he went to work for J.P. Talty a famous Australian saddle maker. The ninety six year old craftsman shared his skills with Pete and taught him a trade. The Quarter horse was coming on the scene and the American influence was producing an Australian interest in western saddles. With an adventurous spirit and a bit of wonder lust Pete sought advice from the US Embassy. He wanted to come to America , learn to make the saddles and then return to Australia . The Embassy workers told him that US regulations wouldn’t allow him to learn a new trade in the United States .

The feisty twenty three year old took pen in hand and wrote a fiery letter to President Richard Nixon. He asked why Aussies could fight along side Yanks in Vietnam , but couldn’t learn a trade in America making western saddles. In two months Pete had a visa. The determined young man crossed the ocean. He competed in rodeos and worked in saddle shops in Texas and Idaho . He used his Australian cowboy skills working on the Hunt Brothers Ranch in Eastern Texas .

At a rodeo Pete ran into cowboy equipment and spur maker Bob Blackwood. Bob offered Pete a job building bronc saddles and bareback riggings. Pete estimates he built 1500 Blackwood riggings in less than three years. Wanting to be his own boss he opened a little shoe repair shop. Offering to purchase new equipment, rodeo notables Neal Gay and his son Donnie lured Pete back into the rodeo equipment business.  With the equipment, Pete opened a new shop and built bareback riggings for the Gay’s until he could repay the loan.

In the early eighties IPRA Champion Bobby Cooper and PRCA Champs Bob and Chuck Logue asked Pete to build a new rig for them. Combining Pete’s knowledge and the rider’s advice a new style rigging was born. Countless cowboys endorse the Hennessy rigging including legends Bruce Ford (5 times World Champion) and “Marvelous” Marvin Garrett (4 times World Champ). Wayne Herman and Mark Garrett have also claimed World titles using Hennessy riggings. In 1995 thirteen of the fifteen NFR bareback riders used Pete’s rigging. Today Cleve Schmidt hopes to be riding Pete’s rig in the 2004 NFR.

Besides making rodeo equipment and chaps Pete builds working cowboy stock saddles and of late has been creating beautifully tooled California style, silver adorned parade saddles. He expresses his artistic side painting on bull skulls and designing custom leather items. Pete’s work is on display in the Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame in Colorado Springs and the Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City . If you’re interested in custom leather items, saddles or bareback riggings give Pete a call at his shop in Celeste , Texas at 1-800-842-8580 or 903-568-4218. He would love to visit with you.