The Roping Saddle versus the Cowboy Saddle

A newspaper reporter asked me in the Eighties if I was a “leather artist.” I told him no, I was a mechanic. And that may be the best way to describe the difference between a modern, competitive roping saddle and the overall conglomeration of cowboy or western saddles.

When I started building saddles in Central Texas, this area was the hot bed of the cutting horse industry, as well as the roping, reining, western pleasure and barrel horse genres. Although cattle were involved in many of these events, and many of the participants had come from working cowboy roots, these events needed saddles as specialized as the horses were