Horses are no doubt an important part of Navajo culture. It isn't often, however, that we see a horse depicted in Navajo jewelry as perfectly as in this concho belt by Ira Custer. Ira Custer has entitled this belt "Run Free" as it "represents all the wild horses running around on the Navajo reservation." Ira Custer has carefully tufa cast three different types of silver horses for this piece; a paint horse, a mustang, an appaloosa, and a morgan horse. As the horses are tufa cast, they are wonderfully textured and decorated with stamping to represent yuccas and the four sacred mountains. The happy horses are galloping across the reservation with eyes ablaze and manes and tails flying. They are affixed to the black leather belt with copper slides. Ira hasn't left out any detail, for the pronged buckle is a silver tufa cast naja that looks like a horseshoe. Now you can see why Ira Custer sold out of his belts at our last Santa Fe Indian Market by 11:00am on Saturday. In this belt, there are 10 horses in all. Each horse measures 3" in length x 1 1/2" in height. The buckle measures 2" in length. The belt itself measures 47" long with the buckle. The back of the buckle is signed "ITC Sterling."

Enjoy this video of Ira Custer on his belt.