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How To Make A Flag Boot Out Of A Horn - Page 2 of 2

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Sanding The Rest Of Your Horn

If you like, you can sand your entire horn. Sanding will make your horn smooth and shiny. Just follow the tips at the bottom of the previous page. If your horn flag boot is going to be used by a rodeo queen or princess, you will probably want it pretty smooth because queen and princess' often wear slacks made of material more delicate than denim jeans, and you don't want a coarse horn flag boot to snag their pants.

When you are done sanding, your horn will probably have a white appearance due to all the horn "sawdust." Rinse it off under the hose and allow it to air dry.

The horn on the right is same horn as in Photo 1 at the beginning of this article (previous page). Sanding has made it smooth and changed its appearance a great deal by allowing much of the natural color striations to show.

This horn has been sanded all over for a smooth finish

Mark Where To Cut, Then Cut Slots

You are going to have to cut two slots into your horn to run a strap through in order to strap the flag boot to your saddle. Use a pencil to mark your slots, not an ink marker. Ink will quickly sink into the porous horn and may leave permanent marks.

Here's a tip when marking where to cut the slots into your horn: Hold your horn down by your ankle, as though it were already strapped to your saddle's stirrup fender. Then turn it around several times to decide which side should go against the saddle. In our case our horn was pretty long, so we made sure to mark the cutting slots so that when the horn was finished, the tip of it would be turned away from the horse instead of poking him in the belly.

Two slots cut into the horn by the Dremel

We used a Dremel tool with a cutting blade to cut the slots into our horn. This made cutting the slots fast and easy.

When using a Dremel wear eye protection (little bits of horn fly everywhere), wear heavy gloves (the Dremel blade can easily skip off of the horn) and follow all other safety precautions as suggested by the manufacturer.

Two slots cut into the horn. Because our horn was pretty long, we cut our slots quite a ways from the top. While you don't want to cut your slots too close to the top of the horn (causing the area from the top of the slots to the top of the horn to be fragile), you can go a little closer to the top than this.

Cut your slots as wide apart as you can. If you cut them close together, the horn in between them will probably break out sooner or later.

Touch-Up Sanding

If you need to, sand over the slots you just cut into the horn to make sure they are smooth. It's also a good idea to take coarse sandpaper and sand the inside of the horn to remove any burrs that may be on the inside of the slots. Removing the burrs will make sliding the straps through easier.

Seal and Protect

Your horn will need to be protected by spraying it with clear polyurethane, lacquer, or something similar. These types of sprays dry to a hard, clear, finish, and do an excellent job of sealing over the porous horn. Be sure to thoroughly spray the top of the horn, down into the horn, and the slots (inside and out).

You can decorate your horn by using a wood burning tool to burn patterns into it before you seal it. Horn burns very easily, so if you haven't wood burned on horn before you should practice on a piece of scrap horn before you burn your flag boot. You can use a wood burning tool to burn any pattern you like into your flag boot, including your brand.

You can also paint your horn. Painted horns can be very pretty. You can choose to paint your horn with muted or natural tones, or you can go wild with bright colors. For saddle and round-up clubs, painting your horn flag boots in matching club colors can make a beautiful accent to your parade dress.

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Attach The Strap And You're Done

After the sealant or paint on your horn has dried, you can slide the strap that you will use to fasten your new flag boot to your saddle through the slots you cut. Small size nylon dog collars make excellent straps for this and they come in a wide variety of colors. Leather straps also work very well.


If you have trouble sliding your strap through the slots (see the finished photo to the right), a piece of tape can sometimes really help. Simply put a little tape over the end of the strap. Allow about 1/4" of tape to extend beyond the strap, and crease it down hard.		We have finished sliding our strap through the slots. We used tape on the end of the strap as described in the picture and text to the left, but for this picture we have removed it.

Your Horn Flag Boot Is Finished!

You're done! Strap your horn flag boot to your stirrup fender and you are ready to carry a flag. We painted our horn brown from top to bottom, then added white in the middle.
Finished flag horn boot