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I just wanted to hear some others thoughts on In Seat Rigs. I have never built one, but have had a few people ask me some of the ranch rodeos I attend if I would. I have been thinking on making one to take to the WRCA finals. Has anyone else used this rigging style, if so Pros and Cons?

Ashley

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Ashley, I guess great or warped minds think alike. I have been giving some though to building a seat rig also. Tracy Moss on this board used to work for Olivers, I think. I sent him a message to get his thoughts on seat rigs, this morning. Hopefully, he'll chime in here. JW

www.jwwrightsaddlery.com

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Ashley,

I've made several seat rig saddles. One for a cowboy on the Waggoner Ranch in Vernon, Tx. , another for a cowboy in Longview, Tx. with a large pre-con outfit. They both really seemed to love 'em. The first one I'd ever seen was in Bob Marrs shop in Amarillo many years ago. He built a lot of them. His opinion was pretty favorable . He told me the pull of the rigging went completely over the top of the seat. As you probably already know many of the trophy saddles at the ranch rodeos are custom made seat rigs. It's not a new concept as there are several very old seat rigged saddles in Don Kings museum.

Upside: they're not that difficult to build. Fenders are much narrower than normal. One layer of leather less under your leg than a flat plate, one more than a skirt rig.

Downside: You really have to get your patterns right, fenders are narrower than normal to go up in the slot , slot in seat has to be wide enough to allow forward movement of stirrup leathers, slot doesn't need to be too high or too low.

Outside of those ranch rodeo circles a seat rigged saddle is looked at as a pretty odd duck . Just depends on where your market is.

There was an old saddlemaker in Guthrie, Tx. named Tooter Cannon. He passed away some time back but he made mostly seat rigged saddles, if not exclusively. As a result, he designed a piece of hardware for the rig that was very flat and it was called a Tooter Cannon rigging. Glenn Pointer, a bit and spur maker made these. I can probably find the pattern for it in my files if you want to see what it loos like.

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Troy, I would appreciate seeing your seat rig hardware pattern. I am familiar with Pointer's hardware, and Danny Pollard from Merkel, Tx is building hardware for me. At least amongst my contemporaries, the seat rig fairly popular. I would like to build one to play around with for myself, and get it right before I offer it to potential customers. Thanks, JW.

www.jwwrightsaddlery.com

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Biggest drawback in my experience is the painful pinching of the rider's leg between the fender and the edge of the slot. I have not found a way to eliminate this without an unsightly large slot for the fender.

Keith

Keith Seidel

Seidel's Saddlery

www.seidelsaddlery.com

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We discussed seat rigs some back before Katrina or whatever the crash was named. Otto Earnst of Sheridan Wy. patented the seat rigged saddle back in the 20's or early 30's. I posted a page from an old Earnst catalog showing the info a day or so before the crash so that is gone forever but once things get back to normal round here I will re-post it. Greg

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We discussed seat rigs some back before Katrina or whatever the crash was named. Otto Earnst of Sheridan Wy. patented the seat rigged saddle back in the 20's or early 30's. I posted a page from an old Earnst catalog showing the info a day or so before the crash so that is gone forever but once things get back to normal round here I will re-post it. Greg

Greg, What is a "seat rig" ? Never heard of it before!!

"The gun fight at the O.K. corral was actually started by two saddlemakers sitting around a bottle of whiskey talking about saddle fitting"...

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Oldtimer......I am not Greg, but here is a photo of a seat rigged saddle, made by Richard Oliver.

seat_rig.jpg

post-5250-1206895362_thumb.jpg

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Oldtimer......I am not Greg, but here is a photo of a seat rigged saddle, made by Richard Oliver.

seat_rig.jpg

Thank´s for the pic! :wtf: Never seen anything like it before ! What´s the theory behind this construction ? I can´t see any advantage in it ??

"The gun fight at the O.K. corral was actually started by two saddlemakers sitting around a bottle of whiskey talking about saddle fitting"...

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