Why not have two billets like the off-side billet, punch a few more holes and just buckle up like on English girths? I figure there has to be a reason, but when I searched I didn’t see one.
It is super hard to tighten a western girth like that. The Latigo is thick, not flexible and I have never had a western girth that had elastic. Usually the holes are far away from each other and the holes are big, so would weaken the leather more. The latigo system is so easy to use once you get used to it, and more nuanced.
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Maybe it’s to do with the greater weight and bulk of a western saddle?
I never use the holes on the latigo; I tie off in the traditional way. More secure IMO.
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I always tie and I use leather so it does not slip like nylon.
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No kidding that it doesn’t slip, at least when I tried to tighten… but it did slip after I rode. I saw another video about how to lock the latigo into a hole and how to tie the knot BEFORE you finished tightening the girth… tomorrow’s experiment, lol
Once you master the latigo, you’ll find it allows much more finesse adjusting the tightness of the girth (as well as tighten a tiny bit at a time) then any number of pre punched holes and buckles. JMO But it moves with the horse better as well. Some horses that are girthy with a buckle set up are much more comfortable with the latigo, especially when you are actually out riding and not going around in circles for 30 minutes in a sand ring. Always tied mine off, never used the holes. Suspect some might be thicker then others though…mine were not difficult to work with.
I don’t think elastic is practical given the weight of the Western saddle compared to an English one…doubt it would be practical in steep terrain either with that heavy a saddle.
ETA…if you have a fancy manicure…you might not like trying to wrap and tie a latigo at all. Just thought to throw that in. You can’t slide and snug that wrap with long nails and it’s easier bare handed then with gloves.
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You have to back up in history, for many of the common things to do with Western tack. Ranch folks were not close to town, no saddle shops to repair stuff when you needed your saddle for work. You had to fix tack yourself with what you had on hand, work still had to get completed each day. No one took days off, even Sundays because the stock had to be cared for. Most ranches would have a cowhide or two laying around for parts. Slice off a strip for a latigo strap when the old one wore out. Punch holes to tie latigo on saddle with string. The variety of ways tie string get run on latigos, all very secure, is amazing!. Cut some strings to fix a bridle when it broke the buckle. Cowboy could make a new cinch with some light rope or cord when the old one wore out. Just needs two metal rings. Heck, he could make the cord out of horsehair in his spare time! Pretty much all of their tack was home made from leather because it was so available. Metal parts were hard to come by, so they created unique knotting or leather, wood, horn fasteners instead.
Western saddles were made of leather pieces, couple nails and saddle strings to hold them together on the wooden tree. Many less expensive western saddles are still constructed this way, not refined lIke modern show saddles are now. I was really shocked years ago to see a saddle with no saddle strings!! How do they tie stuff on? Seller said saddle strings add too much movement in the show ring, so saddles are screwed together now.
With those older saddleis it took minimum skill and time to “fix-up” a broken saddle part, be back riding again quickly to finish your work. Even out on the range, you could cut saddle strings shorter to use a multitude of ways in your daily job, tie a gate shut, fix your broken rein or headstall, make a curb strap. Sewed things were much less common, harder to repair easily if you were out alone, not in town.
No one then would think to go to miles to town to get saddle repaired with those minor issues, you had to be self-reliant. Plus cash-money was dear, hard to come up with for spending. The beautiful rawhide gear, horse hair belts, bridles, fancy gear, chaps, carved and stamped leather items, originated with the Cowboys staying occupied in winter or any spare time. No Internet then eating their time! Ha ha Couldn’t afford to buy much, so they created it at home out of what they had on hand. Less people doing hand work of any kind now, so it will cost you to buy such lovely items unless you make your own.
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Interesting post, goodhors.
At the same period in history, on remote cattle stations in Australia, stockmen were riding in saddles derived from English saddles, with girths with buckles and billets and without saddle strings. They didn’t rope, but they did ride the range just like American cowboys. If a station was large enough, would it have been like a large English or Irish estate, where there were skilled workers, including farriers/blacksmiths and possibly a saddler as well? English estates could be a fair distance from the local market town, let alone London.
Presumably a large, wealthy American ranch would have a blacksmith/farrier on hand, as well as a leather worker.
I wonder what Australian stockmen used to repair their saddles and bridles when caught out on the range a long way from home base?
The American western saddle derived from Mexican saddles, and presumably a lot of the equipment they carried did too.
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Two different systems of cattle working because of the different original settlers, Spanish to Mexican to American with varied offshoots in styles to suit the locale of the ranches. Texas has very different cowboy gear, horse handling skills than California or the Great Plains areas. But they all are similar in being “Western” because they had the same starting points of the Spanish hacienda system…
I think there was less seperation in Australia from their base country, with the UK being overseers of the colony, not a totally new Nation like the USA. I think there also was a faster colonization in Australia than the USA. The Spanish had been in place here a few hundred years before Americans shoved their way in and took over. We had to also fight the American Indians, the Mexicans, our Civil War, each other, before moving towards being organized territories an States. The encroaching settlers used many local customs of clothing, farming, ranching, livestock management because they worked so well in those places.
Immigrants in Australia came as adults with money, used to being land owners, held onto their way of life like tack styles, class systems, more than the Americans did. They didn’t change so radically as Americans did in their new lands to survive. Our USA immigrants came here poor, worked to gain money, learned “the system of being American” in cities before heading west, or as 2nd generation, were the ones moving west with goals of property ownership, getting rich since there were many examples of that happening.
I don’t think English or Australian styles would have worked as well for the Cowboys in the USA, with the radically different methods of cattle management from Spain. The English folks who bought ranches in the West were the ones that changed. Gave up English tack, rode Western saddles, blending in as time passed, if they did not sell out and return to the UK. Roping skills were needed to handle cattle as you found them, doctored or did what was needed, in place. No driving them to pens, because pens or fences often dId not exist without trees.
South Americans are still another way of cattle handling with their bolas for capturing livestock. RIding barefoot, but still very skilled to manage in there location
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Findeight -
I do get manicures, lol, but my nails are very short – but maybe my fingers aren’t so strong??
I didn’t get more practice today – the SoCal fires kept us on edge and the wind has been howling. Luckily for me, no danger. Not so for so many…sad.
Goodhors, love the history. Although I ride/rode english, I always did trail and brought my own strings with me just for those reasons! I had no idea they once were meant to hold a saddle together…
Not until after the railroads branched out and served more smaller towns-they couldn’t get iron or steel, they couldn’t even get nails, fasteners, hinges latches etc. so constructed without them as much as possible. After the railroads developed enough to serve smaller towns it got better, late 19th century but the stuff was still pricey and heavy to ship. So they did without. Cowboys could rasp their own and blacksmiths were self taught and repaired wagons and tools as well as rode herd or fence line as needed. Winters were long and ranch hands killed time with leather work.
Think going to war and splitting with the mother country followed by several smaller territorial wars and the economically devastating Civil War created a very different environment then Australia and folks turned to Mexican and even Native American techniques to operate cattle ranches and survive. Since that was what was available.
Immigrants in Australia came as adults with money, used to being land owners, held onto their way of life like tack styles, class systems, more than the Americans did. They didn’t change so radically as Americans did in their new lands to survive. Our USA immigrants came here poor, worked to gain money, learned “the system of being American” in cities before heading west, or as 2nd generation, were the ones moving west with goals of property ownership, getting rich since there were many examples of that happening.
I doubt that the prisoners came with any money, although at one time some of them might have been landowners. Inmates of penal colonies seldom own land or are permitted to hold to the way of life they led before they were deported.
Apologies to BlueDrifter for aiding and abetting the drifting of your thread away from latigos to tack theory! 
apologies accepted! I just retell these stories at the barn and appear smarter than I am.
small success today – I figured out the latigo buckle and how to make the tongue stick in the hole. It still doesn’t slide very easily, either to tighten or loosen, lol. Another session tomorrow, along with trailer loading…
There were immigrants who were not prisoners or forced to go to Australia. Their increasing numbers included families as it got later in the 1800s. It was raw territory, waiting to be developed, often using penal labor. Much opportunity for free, ambitious men to get rich or richer by applying their energy and wealth to the land. Prisoners who worked off their sentances were available as a labor force in many catagories, miners, cattle and sheep herders, shearing teams, farmers, to name a few.
There was indentured servitude as well both to North America and the Commonwealth countries. Young and able bodied with poor or no prospects and debtors looking at prison time signed private or state sponsored contracts agreeing to basically work as a slave for 3 to 5 years in the New World after which they would be free citizens with no blemishes on their record. Many of these were skilled craftsmen in the various trades. It was a ticket out of various European countries.
And they brought their skills and cultural designs to be thrown into the mix especially improvising on remote ranches and stations…there, I related that to horse gear.
The term ‘cowboy’ is English in origin, referring to the people moving cattle to market. Often local lads working to earn some pennies, they were frequently seen as reckless, out of control and untrustworthy outsiders by the town dwellers. ‘Cowboy’ is often used as a term for poor quality plumbers etc who rip off clients. For centuries Welsh and Scottish ‘drovers’ moved considerable herds of livestock for many miles and many weeks down from the highlands to markets in the English lowlands, most noticably London.
Cowboys, of English, Irish, Scottish descent moved cattle to the early American settlements on the eastern seaboard for sale. The first great cattledrive from Texas was made by Chisholm, a man of Scottish descent and, though I haven’t done the research, probably with knowledge of droving.
The fascination of history is that the more one looks the deeper the interconnections become. The Spanish/Mexican influence is immense but there is another strand in there too.
SORRY that has nothing to do with the problem of girthing a horse!
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Yes, always have your knot loosely in place while you finish tightening the saddle. It’s much too hard to make your knot when your saddle is fully tightened!!
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I just ordered a new saddle and did not want the off billet. I wanted 2 latigo’s. It is easier to get the girth even and more flexibility. Also it can keep the saddle in a better position to tighten both sides.
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