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CARMEL — Danna Burns Shaw, a fifth-generation owner of Burns Saddlery divides her time between Carmel and Utah, where more than 50 artisans engage in old-school craftsmanship of equestrian products.

“We’re trying to keep the traditional skillsets alive,” said Burns Shaw. “Senior artisans train younger ones in saddle-building and, on the fashion side, in custom hats, boots, buckles — the accessories that represent the spirit of the west.”

On New Year’s Eve, 1993, Burns Shaw, who has lived in the equestrian culture her whole life, established Blackhawk Arena, the ultimate all-season equestrian event center in Salina, Utah, a venue where youth and adults develop and showcase skills.

“As the community became more involved, we started putting on bigger equestrian events of all kinds,” she said. “We knew, as we continued to grow, that we needed to shift from manual to online entry and event tracking systems.”

System Saddle-Up

Through mutual friend, the Hon. Julie Culver, a judge for the Monterey County Superior Court, and an accomplished equestrienne, Danna Burns Shaw met Paul Hanson of Carmel Valley, who had an idea for a cloud-based mobile solution for event management.

“Paul and I sat at il Fornaio in Carmel to brainstorm the different needs of equestrian sports, and the potential for an online system that could serve us,” said Burns Shaw. “I was so excited about Paul’s openness, his energy and spirit; I just wanted to lock arms and create something with him. It was exciting to consult with Paul on something that could help our events management.”

Hanson went on to create “Saddlebook,” an online system that receives, organizes and helps manage all entries, schedules, and results for equestrian events, anywhere and anytime.

“Saddlebook enables you to promote your event, receive entries and payments, manage your show-day schedule, and publish scores and results, all in one place,” said Hanson, CEO of the company. “Our mission is to allow riders to spend more time with their horse, by making it easier for them to enter an event, see results, and share them with their followers. Event producers are usually riders who can’t compete because of administration efforts. Now they can ride in their own event.”

With the facility of Saddlebook, Burns Shaw has been able to build her event roster, including an “Xtreme Million” barrel race, principally for women.

“We never had a system strong enough to support our vision to host big events, which typically have a lot of moving parts,” she said. “We had more than 1,000 entries to the Xtreme Million, and Paul was there to help us manage it. He listens, he understands, and he’s very intelligent—a perfect fit for us.”

Burns Shaw facilitated an introduction between Hanson and her daughter, Destiny Crane, a sixth-generation member of the Burns equestrian dynasty, who worked with Hanson to customize the Saddlebook program to suit their events.

“Destiny understood the bones of what we needed, and Paul knew what needed to happen on the tech side of it,” Burns Shaw said. “It’s a big network, which not only captures the history of an event but what’s happening during an event. I can go to Saddlebook and see who’s running and the standings, in real-time, which is phenomenal.”

The Saddlebook name references Facebook, yet is customized to bring “saddles” together. It doesn’t matter what kind of saddle you’re throwing on your horse, says Burns, Saddlebook will support what you’re doing.

Horse heritage

Wandering into Burns Saddlery on Ocean Avenue in Carmel is like going into an art gallery for the equestrian world. Spend a moment admiring the artisan-made belt buckles, the bison boots, custom cowboy hats, apparel and hand-built saddles and you either feel at home or like you’ve fallen into a whole new wonderland. Slip on a cowboy hat and you’re practically in the saddle.

Founded in 1876 by patriarch Miles Lamonie Burns, a revered cowboy, fine-leather craftsman, blacksmith, and musician, Burns Saddlery is the oldest same-family-owned western retail business in the world.

For 145 years, Burns, based in Salina, has had six different shop names and six generations of ownership, but one family, one legacy, one culture: cowboy. And cowgirl.

Danna Burns Shaw will always remember that her grandfather, Vern Burns, kept a stable of workhorses on the ranch. He used to tell her his horses made more money than he did because they did all the work.

“A workhorse is a real thing, the original horsepower that made the west,” she said. “He is such a revered animal, this big useful horse. My father’s love of the horse focused, instead, on racehorses — quarter horses and thoroughbreds. He competed in riding clubs.”

When Burns Shaw was young and participating in riding clubs, herself, she did some arena-style competing, but her true love has been going up into the mountains of Red Rock to trail ride.

“Different things trigger our adrenaline at different times,” she said, “and I’ve moved off the need for speed.”

What’s great about equestrian sports, says Burns Shaw, is that kids can start riding very young. They learn about responsibility, confidence, and character, which is always mirrored in the horse.

In the saddle

For seven years, Sheanna DeForest has produced the annual Ashley’s Journey Barrel Bash, and this was the first year she used Saddlebook. Last year, her computer crashed during the event, and it took two days for her to manually recover all event information.

“I love, as a contestant, that we can go online to enter our own information and then, throughout the event, we can look to see who’s winning what event, where we’re placing, and how much money we’re projected to win. But, as a producer, I love that Saddlebook is accessible on any device that has Internet access. If my computer crashes again, I can log onto my iPad or iPhone, and everything’s right there.”

Ashley’s Journey Barrel Bash, hosted by the Salinas Valley Fairgrounds in King City, is a celebratory event in memory of DeForest’s best friend, Ashley Marie Escobar who, at 26, lost her life to a rare cancer in 2013, after a fierce and fast six-month battle. Which also was the way she ran barrels, DeForest says.

“I produce this two-day event with Ashley’s family,” she said. “This year, we had 450 contestants per day in men’s, women’s, youth (17 and under), and peewee (8 and under) classes, plus a Futurity class for horses (5 and under), who have never competed.”

With 1,100 runs for the weekend, that’s a lot of information to record. Saddlebook makes it easy, says DeForest, who will work with Paul Hanson and his daughter, Naomi Hanson Hernandez, to use the program again in May, when she produces the “Lazy Spade Challenge” in Red Bluff.

“Equestrian events are such a healthy thing for the community,” said Hanson.“And now, through Saddlebook, we have a way to facilitate these events. I believe in getting outside the box, but sometimes that means starting inside the box to figure out what it is before we can get out and make something of it. It’s going to be fun to see how far we can go with Saddlebook.”

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