Ok, I’ve always seen the saddles with absolutely massive horns, bigger than my stretched out hand. What are they for? Do they serve any purpose, or are they just decorative?
[QUOTE=Dani;8874053]
Ok, I’ve always seen the saddles with absolutely massive horns, bigger than my stretched out hand. What are they for? Do they serve any purpose, or are they just decorative?[/QUOTE]
You mean, on charro Mexican saddles?
Those are huge because they are not metal, so they have to be very large not to break when roping big stock, if they take a jerk before they start letting the rope run.
Now they are like that because of tradition, I think.
The neck of a wood post horn has be be larger than a metal horn for strength, and the cap has to be larger than the neck, but they don’t need to be massive. The super large ones on the charro saddles are there because that is the traditional way they were always built. (They also don’t have good rawhide covering so the neck needs to be bigger than on well covered western trees.) Some people also just like an extra large horn and order those on normal western trees. Personal preference.
That makes sense, thank you.
A bigger horn is a slower horn. Less turns with more surface area to slow the rope when you run it.
