page_title: Western saddle
section_title: Rigging
hierarchical_section_title: Western saddle / Rigging
caption_attribution_description: Yellow, Green, Blue and Red circles indicate options for placement of the rigging on a western saddle. Yellow is full, Green is 7/8, Blue is 3/4 and Red is "center fire"
context_page_description: Western saddles are used for western riding and are the saddles used on working horses on cattle ranches throughout the United States, particularly in the west. They are the "cowboy" saddles familiar to movie viewers, rodeo fans, and those who have gone on trail rides at guest ranches. This saddle was designed to provide security and comfort to the rider when spending long hours on a horse, traveling over rugged terrain.
  The design of the Western saddle derives from the saddles of the Mexican vaqueros—the early horse trainers and cattle handlers of Mexico and the American Southwest. It was developed for the purpose of working cattle across vast areas, and came from a combination of the saddles used in the two main styles of horseback riding then practiced in Spain—la jineta, the Moorish style which allowed great freedom of movement to the horse; and la estradiota, later la brida, the jousting style, which provided great security to the rider and strong control of the horse. A very functional item was also added: the saddle "horn". This style of saddle allowed vaqueros to control cattle by use of a rope around the neck of the animal, tied or dallied around the horn.
context_section_description: Saddle rigging refers to the arrangement of rings and plate hardware that connects the billets and girthing system that holds the saddle on the horse.  Western saddle rigging can be either single or double. The front rigging consists of metal "cinch rings" on each side of the saddle to which a long, wide strap called a latigo is attached for holding the  front cinch that goes around the heart girth of the horse, just behind the elbows.  The back cinch is placed around the widest part of the horse's barrel, and is attached to the saddle either by reinforced slots in the leather skirting of the saddle, or, in particularly heavy-duty models, to a second set of rings.
  The front cinch is secured to the saddle by means of a latigo on the left, and on the right, by either a latigo or a billet.  Latigos are not removed until worn out or broken.  They run through the ring or buckle of the cinch (also called a cinch ring), and back to the rigging, sometimes multiple times for extra security.  Modern latigos have several holes at the end so that a cinch can be buckled at a set tension, though the cinch may also be secured by a knot called a "latigo knot," which is a type of half-hitch.   The off-side billet is a shorter, doubled piece of leather with holes along its length, somewhat heavier and less flexible than latigo leather.  It runs through the rigging cinch ring and both ends buckle onto the cinch.  Older saddles may use a latigo on the off side, but this is less common.  Once adjusted to the horse, an off-side latigo or billet is seldom disconnected from the cinch, which remains attached to the saddle until it needs to be replaced, unlike the girth of an English saddle, which is to be removed on both sides when not in use.  While leather is preferred for latigos, nylon web is sometimes used, particularly on cheaper saddles, though it is prone to slip when knotted and the holes may tear more easily.
  When used, a back cinch, made of several thicknesses of leather, is held on by a simple heavy leather billet on each side of the saddle that buckles just tight enough to touch the underside of the horse, but not tight enough to provoke discomfort or bucking.  At the belly midline, the front and back cinches are joined by a light belly strap, called a cinch hobble, that prevents the back cinch from moving too far back.
caption: In-skirt rigging of a western show saddle, showing latigo and buckled cinch. The colored circles indicate the various options for placement of the rigging on a western saddle. The saddle shown has a "full" rigging position, shown by the yellow circle.  The green circle indicates the placement of a 7/8 rigging, blue shows 3/4 rigging, and the red circle shows the historic "center fire" position.
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