Saddles
How To Choose A Saddle. Evolution Of The Mexican Saddle. Birth Of The Bluff Fronted Saddle. The 
Cowboy Age. Sawbucks Or Pack Saddles. Straight Leg And Bent Knee. Names Of Parts Of Saddle.
Center Fire And Double Cinch.

WE know that comparatively few of our boys take their hikes on horseback, especially their camping hikes. But a
lot of their daddies and big brothers do take their horse, and the pack horse on their hunting and fishing trips, and 
every boy wants to know how to do the things his daddy knows how to do. Besides all that, the author is aware of 
the fact that the daddies and the uncles and the big brothers are reading all the stuff he puts out for the boys. They
are constantly quoting to the author things that he has said to the boys, so that now in writing a book for the boys 
he must count them in.

CHOOSE A SADDLE THAT FITS
Everyone knows the misery of an ill-fitting shoe, and no one in his right mind would think of taking a prolonged hike
in shoes that pinched his feet, but everybody does not know that a saddle should fit the rider; an ill-fitting saddle 
can cause almost as much discomfort as an ill-fitting shoe. The best all-around sportsman's saddle in the world is 
the cowboy saddle of the West. A writer in the Saturday Evening Post, who has written a delightfully intelligent 
article on saddles, in speaking of the Western cow-puncher's saddle, says: 

	"There are many good riders who have never thrown a leg over any other sort of saddle, and for 
	work on the plains or in the mountains no man who has used one would ever care for any other 
	type. It is as much a distinct product of this continent as is the birch bark canoe or the American 
	axe or rifle."

Like the cowboy hat, the diamond hitch and the lariat, the cowboy saddle is evolved from the Spanish adaptation of 
the Moorish saddle. The old-fashioned Spanish saddle with the heavy wooden block stirrups, not the bent wood
stirrups, but the big stirrups made out of blocks of wood (Fig. 273) ;such a saddle with stirrups often weighed over 
sixty pounds. These saddles were garnished with silver and gold, and the spurs that the rancheros wore had big 
wheels with "bells" on them, and spikes long enough to goad the thick skin of an elephant. I formerly possessed one
of the picturesque old saddles on which all the leather work was engraved by hand, by the use of some tool like a 
graver, probably a sharpened nail; consequently none of the designs was duplicated.

In the good old cow days there were two sorts of saddles: the "California Center Fire" and the "Texas Double 
Chinch," and all those that I remember seeing had rather a short horn at the bow with a very broad top sometimes
covered with a silver plate; the seat was also much longer than it is to-day. Fig. 272 shows a military saddle which is
a modified cowboy saddle, and Fig. 274 shows a comparatively modern cowboy saddle. The up-to-date saddle of 
to-day has a bulge in front, not shown on the diagram.

In the olden days there were no societies for the prevention of cruelty to animals, and on the ranges horses were 
plenty; therefore, when one of the long-haired plainsmen, with his long rifle in front of him on the long saddle, and 
the heavy Spanish-American trappings to the horse, killed the horse by overwork, he simply took off his saddle and 
trappings, caught another horse, mounted it and continued his journey; there were plenty of horses why should he 
worry?

Later when the cowboy age came in, the cowboys themselves on the Southern ranges used the Spanish-American
outfit; the only blessing the poor horse had was the blanket under the saddle.

When the block wooden stirrups were abandoned and the thinner oval stirrups adopted, the latter were protected 
by long caps of leather, the dangling ends of which were silver tipped. The cowboys themselves wore heavy leather 
breeches called chaps (an abbreviation of the Spanish chaparejo). Thus with the feet and legs protected they could
ride through the cactus plants and dash through the mesquite country without fear of being pricked by the thorns, 
no matter what happened to the horse. Not only did this leather armor protect them from thorns and branches, but it
also prevented many a broken leg resulting from kicks by burros, mules and horses.

The rolled coat or blanket, which the bronco busters on the lower ranges in early times lashed across the horse in
front of their seat, is the thing from which the bucking roll was evolved, and the buckskin bucking roll, we are told, is
the daddy of the swell or bulged front saddle now used. The old-fashioned cowboy saddle has a narrow front, but
about two decades ago ...

THE VIDALIA SADDLE-TREE
Migrated slowly from California over the plains, and was the first one to show the bulged front, and to change the 
narrow bow of the cow saddle to the bluff bow of the saddle as used to-day. It is claimed that while this protects the 
rider from injuries more or less, it has a tendency not to give a fellow the opportunity of as firm a grip with his legs 
as did the old narrow bowed cowboy seat. Later, in Oregon, they began to manufacture "incurved saddles," so that 
the rider's legs could fit better under the front, and the Wyoming saddle makers caught the idea, so that to-day the 
vanishing race of cowboys are using saddles, which it would have taken a brave man to straddle in the early days, 
not because the saddle is dangerous but because it would have looked funny to the old-time boys, and they would 
not have been slow in giving expression to boisterous and discomforting merriment.

It is an odd thing, this law of growth or evolution, and it is a law, and a fixed law, certain peculiarities go together; for 
instance, if one goes systematically to work to produce fan-tail pigeons, one finds that he is also producing pigeons
with feathered legs. The breeders have also discovered that in producing a chicken with silky white feathers they 
unwillingly produce a fowl with black meat. What has this got to do with saddles? Only that the same law holds good 
here: the more the front bulges in the saddle the more the horns shrivel, developing a tendency to rake forward and
upward; the stirrups also dwindle in size. The saddle, which the writer possessed, has stirrups made of iron rings 
covered with leather and the caps were lined with sheep's wool. We read that now the narrow half-round oval stirrup
is a favorite with the cow-punchers, which the cowboy uses with his foot thrust all the way in so that the weight of the
rider rests upon the middle of the foot. This is as disturbing to the European idea of "proper form" as was the 
Declaration of Independence, but the Declaration of Independence has proved its efficiency by its results; so also 
has it been proved that for those who ride all day long the nearer they can come to standing on their feet, and at 
the same time relieving the feet of the total weight of the body by resting it on the saddle, the easier it is to stay in 
the saddle for long stretches of time; in other words, the more comfortable the saddle, the longer one can occupy it 
without discomfort, and that is the reason a saddle should fit the rider.

WITH WESTERN HORSES
One must use Western ways; remember the horses were educated in the West if you were not, but it is not 
necessary to use the cruel, old jaw-breaking Spanish bits with a ring on them. I have one, but it only hangs on the 
studio wall as a souvenir and a curious object of torture. But don't try a straight bit on a Western horse; he may spit 
it out and laugh at you; use the modern Western bits, saddles, and cinch and you will not go far wrong. Of course...

THE PACK HORSE
Is another proposition, for here you will need a pack sawbuck saddle (Figs. 276, 277, 278 and 279); over this 
saddle you can swing your two saddle bags, called alforjas (Fig. 283). Fig. 284 is after Stewart Edward White's 
diagram, and shows how the alforjas are lashed fast to the horse's back with a latigo (Fig. 285). Fig. 280 is the lash 
rope which the man above Fig. 284 is using. In Chapter VII we tell how to throw the diamond hitch. Fig. 282 shows 
the cowboy favorite cooking utensil, the old Dutch oven, and it is practically the same model as the one once 
belonging to Abraham Lincoln. A glance at the cross-section of the cover shows you how the edges are dented in to
hold the hot ashes heaped on top of it when the bake oven is being used. Fig. 281 is a sketch of two essentials for 
any sort of a trip: an axe and a frying pan.

Of course, one could write a whole book on horseback work, saddles and pack saddles. The truth is that one could
write a whole book on any subject or any chapter in this book. But my aim is to start you off right; I believe that the 
way to learn to do a thing Is To Do IT, and not depend upon your book knowledge. Therefore, when I write a book 
for you boys, I do the best I know how to make you understand what I am talking about, and to excite in your mind 
and heart a desire to do the things talked of; you must remember, however, that no one ever could learn to skate 
from a school of correspondence or a book, but one could gain a great deal of useful knowledge about anything 
from a useful book, knowledge that will be of great help when one is trying to do the things treated of in the book.

I can tell you with the aid of diagrams how to pack a blanket, and you can follow my diagrams and pack your
blanket; but in order to ride, skate, swim or dance, you must gain the skill by practice. A book, however, can tell you 
the names of the part of the things.

NAMES OF PARTS OF SADDLE
For instance (Fig. 272), T is the saddle-tree; a good saddle-tree is made of five stout pieces of cottonwood which
are covered with rawhide ; when the rawhide shrinks it draws the pieces together more tightly and perfectly than 
they could be fastened by tongue and groove, glue, screws or nails; in fact, it makes one solid piece of the whole. 
The horn is fastened on to the tree by its branched legs, and covered with leather or braided rawhide. The shanks 
are covered first and then attached to the tree and the thongs are tacked to the saddle-tree, after which the bulged
cover is fitted on. When a good saddle-tree is finished it is as much one piece as is the pelvis of a skeleton.

P is the pummel, A is the cantle, S is the side bar of the saddle-tree, C is a quarter strap side, B is the quarter strap
cantle, E is the stirrup buckle, F is the outer strap safe, G is the cincha ring, H is the cincha cover; the cincha strap
is unlettered but it connects the cincha ring with the quarter strap ring D; J is the cap or leather stirrup cover, L is 
the wooden stirrup, K is the horsehair cincha. Fig. 275 is one of the saddle pads to fit under the saddle. On Fig. 
274, M is the horn, N the cantle, O the whang leather, which your saddler will call tie strings.

You will note that in Fig. 274 there are two cinchas, and in Fig. 272 but one. You will also note that in Fig. 274 the
skirt of your saddle seems to be double, or even triple, and the stirrup rigging comes on top of the skirt, and this is 
made up of the back jockey, front jockey, and side jockey or seat. Now then, you know all about horseback; there is
nothing more I can tell you about the pack horse, but remember not to swell up with pride because of your vast 
knowledge, and try to ride an outlaw horse with an Eastern riding school bit. But acknowledge yourself a tenderfoot,
a short horn, a shavetail, a Cheechako, and ask your Western friends to let you have a horse that knows all the 
tricks of his trade, but who has a compassionate heart for a greenhorn. There are lots of such good fellows among 
the Western horses, and they will treat you kindly. I know it because I have tried them, and as I said before, I make 
no boast of being a horseman myself. When I get astride of a Western horse I lean over and whisper in his ear, and
confess to him just how green I am, and then put him on his honor to treat me white, and so far he has always done 
so.

End of Excerpt.
This (complete) title is available in the SSRsi Survival Library

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