Twisted & Tied Stirrups: An anatomical question.

[mvp]

The anatomy of the wrap that holds the stirrup leather and fender twisted, that is.

I have only see ones that are tied in. As in “You’ll never clean your saddle again” or “You’ll never change the length of your stirrups again.”

The How To blog with nice instructions and photos also shows a latigo woven in and tightened down.

But some other saddles make it look like the wrapping strap has a buckle, and so can be removed and used again. Or is that buckle from the stirrup hobble?

Bottom line: Can I wrap with a leather that buckles somehow?

[Fillabeana]

Um…
First, yes it is set up so you wouldn’t expect to clean in there. On my saddle, you could get a q-tip in there and get the dust/ick out, and you could get some oil/conditioner in there if you really wanted to. Probably not a big deal.

Second, no, the latigo wrap doesn’t have a buckle. That IS the hobble strap.

Third, no problem with changing stirrup length. There will be a point at which you can’t shorten the stirrups more, but that is a fender issue, not a turned-and-wrapped issue.

No reason to put a buckle in. The latigo could just be untucked and unraveled. It isn’t really easy to wrap the leathers, though, sort of like those hand-tied knotted rope halters. They come out much better if the person tying them knows how to do it. So if you really HAD to unwrap the latigo, you’d want someone to re-wrap it for you the first time or three, and you might need to wet the leather down so that it dried tight. So, probably it will be better for the saddle/leathers to wrap them once, and don’t worry about cleaning them.

[VaqueroToro]

If this is the how-to blog you’re referring to, if you trained the leather to do that, you might get away with using another set of stirrup hobbles to keep it together. You’d probably have to do the initial tie with latigo leather as in the blog, but once the stirrup leather “memorized” it, then you could use anything and just redo it occasionally if the saddle sits for any length of time.

[gaitedincali]

I have used a lot of saddles with the nevada twist have yet to see a single one that didn’t allow the length to be adjusted.

[aktill]

Here’s the process in a few photos:
http://www.freckerssaddlery.com/making_saddle.php

Since the wrap is done wet, there’s no reason why you couldn’t remove the latigo entirely without likely affecting the turn of the stirrups. I’ve never seen one done buckled, but could be done with a little hatband buckle.

I see your point about not being able to clean or oil underneath it, but never really worried about that.

This doesn’t really affect the adjustability of the stirrups. I was a little confused by your description at first because the stirrups on my current rig are actually laced in at the adjustment and that’s what I thought you were talking about, but you can do a twist with a blevin or other adjustment plate as well.