The Hope saddle was the "North of the border" version of the mexican vaquero saddle, once called Spanish saddle, built on a rawhide covered, wooden saddle tree. The vaquero saddle in the beginning of the 1800:s had very few parts, a saddle tree with a single rigging, narrow stirrup leathers and a pair of stirrups. In the eastern parts of America there were "American saddles" made, closely resembling todays english dressage saddles.
Why Adolphus Hope (born 1808, and lived in Washington county, TX ) was credited for the style of saddle I don´t know. A double rigging was added to the mexican single rig tree as Texans roped hard and fast . Looking at pics of old Hope saddles show different ways to attach the front rigging to the tree, depending on who made the saddle. On some saddles the rings are nailed to the tree by pieces of leather, some show a mexican rigging with leather loops through the gullet , some have the Sam Stagg rigging and I have seen pics of saddles with a rigging combination of all these. So actually, within documented limits there is nothing right or wrong to make an authentic Hope saddle. It seems that each saddlemaker at the time made his own style of Hope saddle.