Behind the Buckles
In a tiny barn on his parents’ property, Gary Gist began a one-man silversmithing show. It was a hobby. Something to supplement his professional roping career. Now, 52 years later, the Gist Silversmith legacy is synonymous with championship buckles awarded to the best in class. They are worn by American presidents, superstar musicians, professional sports team and rodeo athletes, youth champions and, since the inception of the associations, USTRC and Ariat World Series of Team Roping champion ropers.
It’s an awesome feat, but it hardly encompasses Gist’s life. What encompasses Gist’s life is the loop he began building at age 6, aboard Blackie—his half-Welsh, half-Shetland pony—catching two feet behind his father.
GOING PRO
“I joined the PRCA when I was 12 years old,” Gary Gist said. “The first roping I ever went to was Lone Pine, California, and I won that rodeo. That kind of got me hooked.”
The year was 1957. Gist was undoubtedly the youngest professional roper in the then RCA, which had yet to consider limiting the age of its contestants. There was no handicap system and, since Gist, who was born and raised in the San Diego area, was already many years into competing against grown men, it only made sense to level up.
“Southern California had an association called the CCA and I started roping in the amateur rodeos when I was 9, and then I progressed from there. I said, ‘We need to step it up and rope for a little more money than the amateur league was
