When did western saddles become “specialized”, as in cutting reining and roping.
Does the size of the horn signify a roping saddle? Or are there other distinctions?
Trying to identify a type.
Roping saddles have a strong, bolted down horn, so you can pull from it.
The saddle also will be rigged generally over the tree, not in the skirts, so it doesn’t come apart from a hard jerk.
Other kinds of saddles may be made with a lighter, shaved down tree and lighter leather and the rigging with lighter leather or in the skirt, some with butterfly skirts to add even more close contact.
You want to be sure roping you have a saddle made for it.
For other, a roping saddle will still work, but may be too heavy, put you too far off the horse’s back or at the wrong position for different western disciplines.
Ranch saddles are generally made strong enough to rope with, while barrel racing, reining and such saddles tend to be too light to safely rope.
Some of those only have the front chinch, roping you are better off with a flank cinch also, so the saddle doesn’t come up behind if pulling back hard.
Now, there are some in the West that do rope with center fire, single cinch riggings, but generally they don’t tie hard and fast or take a jerk, but let the rope slide some first, before stopping the critter, taking the worst of the jerk out of it, so they can do with a lighter saddle arrangement.
Not exactly a saddle maven, don’t know when they became specialized, but pretty sure roping saddles are double-rigged as they would just about have to be to “anchor” the saddle–take the strain of the rope/animal roped.
My best recommendation is to look at saddles online at some site such as http://www.horsesaddleshop.com/
You can look saddles up by type – roping, trail, whatever. Horns vary from one type to another, as do riggings, stirrups, skirts, etc. A very educational site!
E.g., check out the differences between this team roper:
http://www.horsesaddleshop.com/billycook-teamroper.html#.U9kmlPldVnM
and this trail saddle by the same company:
http://www.horsesaddleshop.com/billycooktrailsaddle.html#.U9knAPldVnM
They have been specialized for decades- I can certainly say as far back as the 50s when I started riding there were ‘all purpose’ and roping and barrel racing and cutting and such, including silver parade and show saddles. I still have my first western saddle, new in 1965, a TexTan/ Hereford all purpose type, which I used for all events from pleasure thru reining to speed events, you could rope goats on it, but I would not have attempted anything more substantial. Working ranch saddles have pretty much always been all purpose in the more rigorous sense. I would say that as far as I know more specialized reining saddles are somewhat newer, and more recently there is a dizzying array of ‘trail’ saddles.
Cantles tend to be higher for ‘all day’ purposes, ranch work and trail riding, lower for arena events like roping and steer wrestling where you need to get off fast. Stirrups likewise have a wider tread for roping to ensure a quicker exit of the foot. My sister’s cutting saddle from the late 60s also has a low cantle.
Personally I currently have, in addition to the antique, a McCall Wade and a custom built ‘ranch’ type, all purpose but more of the ‘Texan’ look of my youth if you will than the Wades. The McCall has a wide tread stirrup but I much prefer the oxbows on the other saddle, for knee and hip comfort they’re like the flexible English stirrups for me.
Like Beverley said, saddles have been specialized for years.
They are even specialized within roping. There are differences between heading, heeling, calf roping and ranch roping. It is not just the horn that specifies a roping saddle. Stirrup placement and seats can change how your positioned as you rope. What type of roping you are doing can determine your position.
Not all horns are bolted on either. For most smaller dally horns used for team roping, all-round ranch cutters and calf roping, yes, but that may depend on the tree maker. A majority of ranch style saddles on a wood tree have a wood horn as well.
I will agree with Beverly and Aces, specialized saddles are OLD, not new thinking. Cutting saddles used to be very flat seated, to let you “sit down close” on the fast turning horse. Roping saddles of all sorts have already been covered pretty well. Barrel saddles have changed and improved a great deal, which should be expected when 1/100 of a second on the run can mean win or lose and the big money. The folks that win have ALWAYS gone the “extra bit” trying to gain an advantage.
However the specialized fitting of trees is newer, courtesy of rich owners, not the working ranch folks. With heavy blankets and pads under their Western Saddle, horses were expected to “live with it” and produce a full days work, no matter if the saddle was theirs or not. Body styles of using horses were often very similar, so QH Tree or Semi QH Bars, did fit the majority of Western horse types fairly well. A working cowboy brought his own saddle, which fit HIM to use on the Ranch horses he was given to ride. Saddle often lasted his whole working life, went on hundreds of horses in that time.
