I truly believe that where you live influences your riding style, aesthetic, and approach. For me, I’ve always lived in Arizona but more specifically, South Eastern Arizona where I’m roughly an hour away from the US/Mexican border. This means that growing up, I mostly associated the vaquero riding style with Western riding and tack, and ever since I was a little girl I fantasized about owning a Guadalajara Horn saddle. I will say, my training methods never resonated with the vaquero’s but that doesn’t mean I can’t admire their tack, right?!
For those of you who don’t know or have never seen a Guadalajara Horn saddle before, it is an elaborately decorated western-styled saddle accompanied by a massive horn measuring almost five inches wide and three inches tall! They are commonly found in Mexico and have a very practical use.
They are born from the Spanish and Mexican Vaqueros, the Guadalajara horn allowed the roping, dallying, and slowing of a cow by allowing the rope to slide, get tightened once more, and then tighten against its upper “lip” to keep the dallies firm. Because the horn sits so low it allows the horse greater leverage and it can hold greater weights. To sum it up, the larger the horn neck, the more friction of the rope to hold livestock, and the less dallying the vaquero needs to do. Stunning, yet practical.
As many of you probably already know, where I live, ranching and agriculture are a huge part of many people’s daily lives and these saddles are built for their practicality. Even though the specific Guadalajara horn saddle isn’t incredibly common, it can still be found under a vaquero in our Sonoran desert and dallied to a wild bull while a trusty mare stands her ground.
What tack do you see from your bio-region that you have always dreamed of owning? I’d love to hear from you! Drop a comment below or reach out to me on my personal Insta at @unbridledmama.
