Rear Cinches, Part 2: The Rest Of The Story

Well you can see how good my word is about finishing the story in a couple of days. I always have such good intentions but building custom saddles always gets in the way.

What caused the two grooves in your hardwood floor under the rockers on you chair was caused by anchoring the front of the rockers down just like a rigging in the full double position and then you standing on the back of the rockers is just like a rear cinch would do to a saddle. I guess I let the cat out of the bag as far as what I think of Full Double Rigged Saddles. There aren’t many situations that I would ever recommend using a set up like that. There are one or two but they don’t apply to 99% of the riders out there.

I guess we can look at the pictures now, everybody likes pictures. Literally 99% of the people you see riding rear cinches will have them adjusted the same as the pictures are showing. There are several reasons for this. One is that there are a lot of horses out there that weren’t trained to have their rear cinch pulled up tight against their belly and if you tried it you just might get bucked off. Second is that when they saddled up in the morning they pulled the rear cinch up just close to the horses belly, grabbed a stirrup and stepped on and headed up the trail. Well after about 5-6 miles in the 90 degree heat your old pony is starting to gant up a bit and the rear cinch will look just like the two pictures at the start of my last post.

Well, ya say they still look cool and I’m still going to use mine. You’re going to get so tired of me saying this but, lets use some common sense for just a second or two. I’ve seen more than one good cowboy get bucked off because he tied off to an 800 pounder and tried to slow her down and had that loose rear cinch come up and slap his bronkey colt in the belly. That’s not too bad because those cowboys are tough and can take that kind of abuse.They just catch their horse, tighten their rear cinch and step aboard. It’s happened before and they know that in the business they’re in that it will happen again.

Well lets take the rest of us Pig Farmers and I’m including myself in this bunch, you can get you and your horse in a much worse situation than the working cowboy because were not trained to handle what’s about to happen to us.

Most of the people that ride, or a very large percent of us that do, are just Trail Riders plain and simple. I don’t care if you have gone to a clinic with Buck or Clinton or Peter you’re still just a trail rider 99% of the time. I know all three of the people that I mentioned use rear cinches and wouldn’t ride a horse without one and that’s fine because we’re not them.

OK back to us, we’re headed up the trail and our rear cinch looks just like the pictures and we’re having a great time and we come around the corner in the trail and to our surprise there is an old fire killed Fir Tree that blew across the trail in the last wind storm. You ride up to it and you can see where folks have tried to brake the staubs off by kicking them with their boots and finally gave up because those limbs are just as hard as a piece of 3/4 inch rebar. It’s too steep on both the up and down hill sides to ride around the tree and you can see where other people have jumped their horse over the log and kept going. So of course there is one limb right on top of the log that looks just like a hockey stick and is pointed back toward you and old Paint. Well of course you don’t have a saw, a knife, an axe or a pistol (that story will be coming up real soon) so you just scoot old Paint up to the tree and give him some leg and ask him to jump the tree like everyone else has, well this time things don’t go as planned. The end of this limb has been broken off and is a sharp as the Buck Knife that you should be wearing (more common sense) as old Paint tries to clear the log he runs that hockey stick limb between your rear cinch that’s hanging down 4 inches and his belly. Let me tell you, this get’s real UGLY real fast. I don’t need to tell you what happens next because now you’re starting to use that great gift we all have called COMMON SENSE!!

Just for fun lets say the hill wasn’t that steep and you could ride around the downed log and as you’re doing this old Paint is a little nervous and he just runs a sapling under his rear cinch. It doesn’t open his belly with all of his innards hung up on the stick but it’s sure enough to make him buck you off and leave you hurt 5 miles from your trailer. And remember, old Paint is still headed up the trail at mach one and you have to go find him with a broken rib and a big scrape where your face slid down an old Pine Tree.

You’re probably asking about now, where in the hell does this guy that I don’t even know, come up with all of this stuff. Well 150 years ago I made my living off the back of a horse on ranches and in the Backcountry.

I had a trainer tell me just the other day, { I’m going to build saddles for their clients} that they wanted all of the saddles to be double rigged with rear cinchas because they felt that a western saddle looked stupid without a rear cinch. I just happened to finish a custom saddle a few days ago for another Natural Horsemanship Trainer. The saddle is for a lady with a bad shoulder and is about 65-67 years old and for the first time in 30 years I thought to myself since I was writing this Review, I wonder what all of that weighs. So I grabbed the rear cinch, the tugs and the connector strap that goes to the front cinch and put them on my Postal Scale. The rear cinch is just 3 1/2 inches wide to keep the weight down. Well the scale said 3 1/2 pounds right to the ounce.

Well my Web Master says my Posts are to wordy, I guess that means that I talk to much and she’s probably right. So I will finish this up and leave you and your common sense to figure out what’s right for you. Lets just look at the facts one last time. Weight for you and your horse, Danger for you and your horse, Cost for you, and comfort for your horse. So I’m sure you will make the right decision but do you need a rear on your saddle??? Bob

P.S. The next story or review or whatever you call these things is going to be about Rigging Position and Rear Cinchas. Something I learn from some good cowboys working on a ranch in the Owyhee Country in Southeastern Oregon 23 years ago.