For Shub Treme home, old west is more than a decorating motif

<p>Comfortable seating, a cowhide rug and western-themed décor help give this living area a western flair. A few Mardi Gras decorations are sprinkled in to celebrate the season and the upcoming Hargrove Community celebration. </p>Rita LeBleu / American Press

<p class="p1">Linda “Shub” Treme knows her way around a horse and a firearm. Her home is a genuine reflection of her life experiences and the taste of her late husband, Willard Treme.

<p class="p1">“Willard loved horses and anything western,” Shub said. “Now that he’s gone I sleep with two men, Smith and Wesson. ‘Course I’m always packin.” 

<p class="p1">The couple built their 2,400 square foot home in 2005. The open concept’s focal point is a floor-to-ceiling stone fireplace with mantle from a large cypress log. The wall is rough-cut cedar, hung on the diagonal. 

<p class="p1">The house gets plenty of natural light. The Tremes made sure the view of the land, including pastured horses, could be seen from the living area as well as from the large master suite. Currently, the pasture is home to three horses and four llamas. The 60 acres on which the house is built once belonged to Shub’s dad, Thomas R. Rigmaiden. However, Shub did not grow up on the property.

<p class="p1">She did enjoy herding, cutting out and branding cows and hunting with her father as a child. She also inherited a resiliency and fierce independence from her mother, Noba Gearen Rigmaiden.<p>Each chair at the dining table has a different western motif. The light overhead is created of genuine deer horns. The flower arrangement rests on a pair of Texas long horns. </p>Rita LeBleu / American Press

<p class="p1">“Daddy always liked to tell about how before him and mama married, she’d beat a feller on the race track one day and make a date with him the next,” Shub said.

<p class="p1">Her mother liked to tell about how Shub broke her first horse at age seven.

<p class="p1">“When I was little, I remember wondering what my friends who didn’t ride did for fun,” Shub said. “I put a couple of ‘em on horses and ummph,” she shakes her head,  “the horses would run away with them. It’s a wonder somebody didn’t get hurt.”

<p class="p1">Shub managed to make the old-fashioned skill of cutting out another brand from her dad’s herd pay off for her. As an adult, she won about $400,000 with her cutting horses. <p>Shub Treme had the bedspread custom made, perfect with the old-time western movie star posters and Indian-themed wall decor. She remembers seeing the stars at the "picture show." The cost to get in was 12 cents. </p>Rita LeBleu / American Press

<p class="p1">Cutting is a western-style equestrian sport, according to Wikipedia. Horse and rider work as a team before a panel of judges during a two-and-a-half minute performance, called a “run.” Cutting cattle are typically young steers and heifers. One cow must be a cut from deep inside the herd and the other is from the edges. Once the selected cow has been driven clear of the herd, the contestant commits the horse by dropping the rein hand to feed slack and give the horse its head. At that point, it is almost entirely up to the horse except for allowable leg cues from the rider to prevent the cow from returning to the herd. 

<p class="p1">After Shub learned the ropes, she began training the horses herself rather than paying a trainer.

<p class="p1">“I built me two pens and got started,” she said.  

<p class="p1">After a divorce, Shub started competing in Single Action Shooting Society Events to keep herself busy and because she’s always enjoyed shooting and hunting. Her enthusiasm for hunting has never waned. <p>In the living area, all the lighting has a western motif. Shown here is the living room’s custom wrought iron and wooden chandelier fashioned around a genuine wagon wheel spoke and above a custom-designed sconce. </p>Rita LeBleu / American Press

<p class="p1">When she married her first husband, the late Edward Richard, the couple lived with their in-laws for a few months. 

<p class="p1">“I didn’t even know how to make a pot of coffee, much less cook,” Shub said. “But I’d get up at the crack of dawn and kill a couple of squirrels and skin ‘em,” she said. “Edward’s mamma would cook ‘em up.”

<p class="p1">She pulls up a photo of her latest deer on her I-phone. It was taken during the week of Thanksgiving.

<p class="p1">There is no other house like this, because there are few people like Shub. While some people may own saddles or possibly even collect Nelson Silvia rodeo champion belt buckles, few can say they actually won the buckles in their collection. Shub has beautiful paintings of horses in her home, horses that she’s owned or her late husband owned.

<p class="p1">What makes her house a home?

<p class="p1">“I guess ‘cause I’m here,” she said, chuckling and crossing her legs. She’s got on a pair of wild-looking black and white cowboy boots. Her pant legs are tucked in. “And I like seeing my things around me. It took a while to get this stuff. It doesn’t happen overnight.”<p>Shub Treme in one of her 22 western hats. </p>Rita LeBleu / American Press

<p class="p1">Shub remembers seeing Roy Rogers, Lash Larue and Hop Along Cassidy at the downtown picture show for 12 cents. She has a twinkle in her eye and spring in her step. And even though she describes herself as a fair weather rider these days — avoiding the recent freezing temperatures – this 79-year-old is far from being ready to be put out to pasture. She continues to ride.