Jessica Jahiel's HORSE-SENSE Newsletter Archives

Roping saddle

From: Len

Dear Jessica, thank you for HORSE-SENSE, you are the best! Hope you can advise me on a saddle purchase. I'm looking to buy a roping saddle for my grandson, who has just graduated high school. I don't want to tell him about it, because it's a surprise graduation and birthday present. I went and looked at some good roping saddles the other day, and now I don't know what to buy him. I was never a roper myself, but I knew some team ropers, and I remember their saddles were pretty tall in the front and back - I know for a fact that they had tall cantles in the back. At this store, the fellow selling the saddles told me that ropers want real low cantles, and some of the saddles he showed me had real low cantles. There were other saddles that looked more like the roping saddles I remember from way back. I don't want to get the wrong kind of saddle, so which kind of cantle would be the right one to go with?

Thanks for your help, Len

Hi Len! First, I'm going to suggest that you do what you don't want to do - you need to bring your grandson in on this decision. If you want it to be a surprise, write out a "coupon" that says "good for one (1) roping saddle" and wrap it up and give it to him at a family dinner. This way, he'll be surprised AND he'll be able to get the saddle he wants. A saddle is a very personal item, after all.

As for your question about cantles, you and the salesman are both right, but I think you were talking about two different kinds of roping. Many team ropers do use saddles that have higher cantles, but if your grandson is a calf roper, he will probably want a saddle with a low cantle. It's a practical matter, really - team ropers stay in their saddles, whereas calf ropers have to get out of their saddles fast, so that they can get to and tie the calf. A high cantle can get in the way of a quick dismount, and a lot of riders have the thigh bruises to prove it!

Jessica

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