Perched in the announcer’s stand Steve Schiestel of Alberta, Canada has a bird’s eye view of every exhibitor and every class at the shows he emcees. From his roost in the announcer’s booth he sees the moments riders hope judges saw and the blunders they hope the judges missed. And those have served as a source of inspiration for his Cowboyin Cartoons collection.

“I love that he has taken the good moments and the embarrassing moments and put a humorous spin on them,” said Kerry Bradac. “His drawings have always depicted those horse show moments we’ve all had.”

She’s not sure that she or her horses have specifically starred in an illustration, but she’s certain that her flawless equitation patterns have inspired the theme of one or two. Bradac is a breeder who owns and stands Hot Diggity Joe and Open For Suggestion at Bradac Ranch South in Ocala, Florida. She also regularly shows at sanctioned AQHA events.

“If you see any of his work with a hunt seat rider hanging onto her horse’s neck to stay on, you can thank me,” she said.

His work as an announcer and an artist go hand-in-hand. It was a gig in 1999 that sparked his interest in drawing cartoons based on his observations. During a reining class, an exhibitor spun so fast that the rider lost count and overspun. Schiestel recreated the dizzying performances by drawing a horse and rider with bulging eyes set in a shoulder-deep crater.

Captioned by “Bob suddenly  stopped only to realize he might have overspun!” this was the first drawing that catapulted his work into the spotlight.

“It certainly isn’t my best work, but it was kind of the first cartoon that caught a lot of attention,” he said. “It has since been published in a few magazines and books.”

Having served as the announcer at the Canadian National Quarter Horse Show for nearly 15 years and several APHA Zone 10 Shows among others has provided a neverending supply of ideas for his light-hearted cartoons that bring humor to the show ring. He takes his horse show announcer duties seriously. In his opinion, a good announcer can really help manage a show. More importantly an announcer can make or break everyone’s experience at shows.

“For most exhibitors it is about the experience as much as the placings,” he said. “They want to hear their names and get their moment in the spotlight. I try not to take too much away from that.”

But exhibitors reveal his humor follows him into the announcer’s booth and makes the entire day enjoyable.

“He made showing fun,” Bradac said. “We all enjoyed seeing his drawings and laughing at the events that had unfolded that day.”

Filling the margins

Schiestel can’t recall a time that he hasn’t drawn. He remembers filling the margins of his school notebooks with doodles. The mindless scrawling followed him through high school, undergraduate studies and ultimately business school where he became a Certified Public Accountant.

“I was always bored at school. I drew whatever the wind was blowing that day,” he said.

It wasn’t until he met and then married Lisa Schiestel that horse show blunders became his source of inspiration. The couple married in 1997. Since Lisa is an all-around trainer and competitor, she convinced Steve to help her out at shows and even talked him into announcing.

“After watching the 92nd showmanship or reining pattern, I needed a distraction,” he said. “So out came the sketch pad and pencil.”

His “studio” is the announcer stand or the dusty ringside bleachers of the show he’s attending. He starts with a pencil and a pad of blank paper. Once he gets the scene drawn to his satisfaction he transfers them to the computer. Then he adds color, captions and fine tunes the details.

“Once people started to figure out what I was doing in the announcer stand they would come running up there to make sure I noticed their foibles, hoping to be the subject of my next piece,” he said.

Steve Schiestel

He doesn’t have formal art training and said he’s refined his craft through hours of practice. Honing his artistic style has taken years of practice, but he never runs out of ideas to work on.

“Life in general provides plenty of funny situations if you know where and how to look for them,” he said. “And horse shows are full of them.”

As much as he enjoys creating, he also appreciates the opportunity to view the western art exhibits on display at the annual Calgary Stampede held each July and the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City.

“There are so many talented artists, all with a different talent and perspective on the world,” he said. “In one booth you get unbelievable photo realism, the next one would be absolute surrealism and then a six-foot bronze that looks lifelike.”

Horses and horse shows are the primary focus, but he has also done work on commission for unrelated topics. He was hired by Alberta Country Magazine to illustrate an advice column. The reader had a chicken that kept plucking the feathers out of its butt and the editor responded with possible reasons why. Schiestel’s illustration featured a humiliated bird using the feathers he had left to shield his plucked backside. His knack for incorporating humor shone through in the non-horse cartoon.

Horses a likely subject

Horses have always been a part of Schiestel’s life. He began riding long before he met and married Lisa. As a youth he participated in 4-H “light horse” events. He also competed in team roping and steer wrestling. During his childhood he also had experience with “heavy” working draft horses. His father did many of the daily chores with a team of Belgians. Although he was raised around horses, it wasn’t until he met his wife Lisa that he got involved with AQHA events.

“I thought I knew how to ride until I met her,” he said.

Trainers in the couple’s region don’t have an opportunity to specialize so Lisa’s training business prepares riders and horses for a variety of events ranging from Western Riding to Hunter Under Saddle, Halter horses and Longe Liners.

In the 20 years since they were married, he says he has learned that he is impossible to teach because he doesn’t listen. He spent a few years traveling back and forth from Alberta to show in the United States with Oklahoma based trainers Leigh and Leonard Berryhill.

“They are great people,” he said. “But Leigh confirmed that I am impossible to teach and don’t listen.”

Today he enjoys competing in trail and halter when his 13- year-old daughter doesn’t wrangle him out of show partners.

“She steals every horse we raise worth riding,” he said.

The family has raised multiple top horses including broodmare Three D Jewel (Three Dimension Zip x Hyline Bobbi June). The broodmare produced 12 foals who have celebrated a combined 22 Canadian National Championships, 10 futurity wins, six futurity reserve championships, a Congress finalist, two AQHA world show finalists and a top 10 finisher.

The Schiestels also raised Sudden Sign Of Faith (RL Best of Sudden x My Faith N Principl) who has earned six Top 10 world show placings as high as third place.

Although he doesn’t spend much time competing, he’s active in the industry. For about five years he has served as an AQHA Director representing Alberta, Canada. He sits on the show committee where he strives to represent AQHA members and their interests. He is also a past executive director of the Canadian Quarter Horse Association and past president of the Alberta Quarter Horse Association.

“I find that in the midst of any group of horse people there is often a demand or need for someone with some business acumen, a bit of legal understanding and the ability to think objectively,” he said.

When Schiestel isn’t putting pencil to paper to sketch out a horse show blunder, he is busy working as a CPA who specializes in the oilfield and agriculture industries.

He and Lisa also own and operate Silver Line Cattle Company. Their herd calves approximately 200 head each spring, a mix of black angus and papered Galbvieh cows.

“The Gelbvieh cows are great maternal producers that are very docile,” he said. “Many of our cows are so quiet they will come for scratches in the pasture like the brood mares.”

To see more of Schiestel’s work, find him on Facebook or visit his website at www.cowboyin.com.