Copper& Lace
Horses, thread, fire. No riding required. You'll show up soft-handed and go home with calluses under the polish and a braid only you could make.
Your hands will be busy the whole time.
You'll work alongside the horsewoman on whatever the farm asks for that day — and learn the skills underneath it.
We don't put you on a horse. We teach you how to read one. How a horse decides to trust you before it ever decides to follow you. How to stand still and mean it.
Then we put your hands to work somewhere else — the braid, the wire, the fire. Real skill, not a souvenir.
Sunup to lantern-light.
Coffee & brief.
Land, horses, what the day holds.
The horse block.
Groom. Tack up. Lead.
Whatever needs doing.
Barn, tack, garden — the farm sets the work.
Lunch over coals.
Cooked together, eaten at one long table.
The lace bench.
Horsehair and copper wire, braided into something you'll wear.
Roping the dummy.
A steer head, a hay bale, and a rope. You'll catch more than you miss by the end of it.
Day Pass closes.
Or stay on for the lantern.
Hard skills. Soft hands. Both stay.
The horse block.
Groom, tack up, and lead — plus a few quiet minutes in the round pen with a horse that decides whether it likes you. No riding, no rushing.
Farm work.
Whatever the day sets — stalls, tack cleaning, the kind of upkeep that keeps a farm standing. Not staged for you. Real.
Fire-cooked lunch.
You help cook it, and everyone eats at the same table. Sides in cast iron, bread off the fire.
The lace bench.
Horsehair braided the old way, finished with a hand-wrapped copper wire clasp — a technique that's just lace-making with a horse's tail instead of thread. It goes home on your wrist.
Roping the dummy.
A steer head, a hay bale, and a rope. No experience needed — just a willingness to miss a few before you don't. Bring your competitive streak.
A bracelet you braided yourself, copper and horsehair twisted by your own hands. The quiet knowledge of how a horse follows a woman it trusts. Dirt under your nails that won't come out until tomorrow's shower. And the kind of tired that feels like yours.
Two ways to do this.
Come alone or bring a friend.
We'll seat you with a small group of women for the day. Strangers at 8am, usually not by lunch.
Claim the day for your group.
Bring your people — a birthday, a bachelorette, a reunion. Same day, same price, just yours.
Same day. Same price. Either way, six women max.
Stay till the lantern's out.
Some days end when the work's done. Some end when the last story does. The braids are finished, the Dutch oven goes on as the light drops, and the porch fills up.
Dutch oven, slow-cooked, shared off one table.
Tea, cider, sweet tea, water.
Mending, embroidery, or just your braid to finish.
Stories by lantern light. We stay till they run out.
Pick a date, lock it in.
Sunup to four-thirty
Until the last story's told
Two to six women per day. No experience necessary.
The second Saturday of every month. Severe weather reschedules.
Decode Horsemanship · Chapel Hill, NC.
Sunup to four-thirty. Or stay till moonrise.
Open enrollment, or claim the day for your group of 2–6.
Boots or sturdy shoes. Clothes you don't mind losing to dirt.
What to bring.
Bring
- Boots or sturdy closed-toe shoes
- Clothes you can get dirt on
- A hat with a brim
- Sunglasses & sunscreen
- A water bottle
- A light layer — mornings are cool
- A change of clothes for the drive home
Don't Bring
- Open-toed shoes or sandals
- Anything you'd cry over getting dirty
- Heavy perfume (the horses)
- Acrylics you're precious about — the wire work is hands-on
- Anyone you didn't book
- An agenda
Come make something.
Pick a date, fill in the details, and lock in your spot.
See Available Dates