Page 1 - 2005 DT 12 Issues

What’s Inside!

Featured Article
The Western Saddle........................1
Special
Quiz................................................7
Departments
News & Notes.................................2
January 2005 Programs & Hikes..........................4
Desk Schedule................................6
Bulletin Board................................8

thumbless cowboys when a thumb
THE WESTERN SADDLE . . .
got in the way of a rope suddenly
“Boots and Saddles” goes the bugle call, but for the cowboy his saddle drawn taught by a wildly running
came before boots or anything else. It was simply a “must” for his work. steer. The Texans solved the problem
by tying the rope to the horn . . . first.
by Chuck Kleber The horn was an innovation also wel-
comed by the horse, for the first
efforts to secure cattle to a horse in-
t is possible to ride without a horse and rider were one creature. volved the horse’s tail as a tie-post.
saddle. The Comanche did it very But this saddle was too cumbersome Although there have always
Iwell, riding swiftly with bow and for what became the first cowboys, been variations, by the mid 1800s the
a quiver of arrows on the rider. He the Spanish-Mexican vaqueros. They essential Western saddle had
really had no need for a saddle. But modified it to suit their needs in cattle appeared, incorporating such useful
there was a need elsewhere, and it features as leather fenders to keep the
was first met about 1,500 years ago rider’s legs from rubbing against the
by a group of people called the side of the horse. Good saddle
Sarmatians who lived around the makers were in demand as the great
Black Sea in Europe. What followed cattle drives and ranches entered the
were purpose-built saddles in an evo- scene. In 1869, Juan Martarell,
lution that recognized specialized Alsalio Herrera and Ricardo Mattley
requirements, such as those for me- opened the Visalia Saddle Company
dieval knights. in California. They originated a
The saddle you’ve seen in countless lighter and more comfortable saddle
Westerns and at working and dude that was also stronger. They called it
ranches owes its origins to the Span- the “Vaquero Saddle.” It was soon
ish war saddle, “La Estradiota,” that copied and became a standard for
came to the New World with the Western saddles. But it was in Texas
Conquistadors. It was built on a that many of the best saddle makers
leather-covered wooden frame made their mark. Samuel Dale Myres
called a “tree,” with a high pommel ranching. A saddle horn was devel- opened a shop in Sweetwater in 1897.
in front of the rider and a high cantle oped for roping cattle. Part of the tree, Writing in the Quarter Horse Journal,
behind him to provide maximum se- it rose from a lowered pommel and Knowles Peterson credits Myres with
curity, making it difficult to unseat vaqueros became experts at dale making the “most beautiful and most
the rider in battle. This worked well vuleta, the art of tying a rope to the
for combat and, indeed, it terrified horn. Early Texans learned about this
the Aztecs who initially thought that the hard way. Many became Western Saddle, continued on p. 6