All riders should know the parts of a western saddle if they are going to use one. If you are new to riding, then you may only know a few names of the parts of the saddle.

If You're the Rider or Trying To Be One,Then You Should Know The Parts of a Western Saddle

Most people, when you ask them, will tell you that you have a saddle, straps, reins and stirrups. Maybe they will even say a saddle horn. Okay, well that is a good start. (Sort of, the reins aren’t part of the saddle.) There are several more parts to a saddle.

A saddle has about twenty-four parts to it that you need to know. Some of these parts need to have regular inspections and maintenance. Some will need to be replaced. If you don’t know your parts and you are told that your latigos needs to be replaced, how are you going to know what needs to be replaced? Or if you are told that one of your cinches needs to be tightened or you could lose your saddle. Will you know what to do?

The basis of any western saddle is the saddle tree. The other materials are the fork (swell), gullet, latigo holder, latigo, horn, front jockey, seat jockey seat, cantle, Cheyenne roll, back jockey, skirt, front rigging dee, rear rigging dee, fender, saddle strings, hobble strap, stirrup leather, flank billet, flank cinch, front cinch and the cinch connecting strap. Wow, that is a lot to remember!

Most people have heard of most of these or can easily figure out what they are. These include the seat, horn, stirrups and possibly the cinches. But what are the other pieces?

What’s a saddle tree? Okay with knowledge of other things you might think that a saddle tree is something that you put a saddle on. You could come to the conclusion that a saddle tree has something to do with a foundation. Now we are getting somewhere. The saddle tree is the foundation that the saddle is built around. This needs to be meticulously made or the saddle will not be right.

The gullet is an important part of the saddle. This part needs to be measured properly so that the fit will be right. Improper fit will mean that the saddle will rub the horse’s withers and you will have a very unhappy horse.

Hmmm, fenders. What can they be? When one thinks of fenders, they probably think of fenders on a car. Like the fenders on a car, the fenders on a saddle do protect. They protect the rider’s legs from the horses sweat. That would make sense. Think of how uncomfortable it would be to be on a horse all day and not have the fenders there. You would be one cranky rider at the end of the day.

Each of these pieces work together to give you your saddle or at least what most people would call your saddle. This means that they are calling all of the pieces as a whole the saddle. Knowing the individual pieces of the saddle would be over their head.