January 2006

Tying The Latigo

In the “old” days, cinches were tied onto the latigo. It was more work, but it allowed you to tighten the girth to exactly the right degree.

Pulling the latigo through a buckle, poking the buckle’s tongue through a pre-punched hole and securing it is the modern way to cinch up a western saddle. Most new cinches have buckles with tongues, and the latigos come with pre-punched holes, making it easy to pull up a latigo to the right hole and then plug it in and cinch it down.

Tying the latigo on your Western saddle is as simple as 1, 2, 3.

But what about the other way, the time-honored way of tying a cinch? In the old days, cinches didn’t have buckles with tongues and latigos didn’t come with holes in them. Cowboys, cavalry soldiers and rodeo riders tied their cinches on. You can do it, too . . .…