Replacing The Horn?

[rcjunky007]

hello everyone im pretty new here and i was wondering what it would take to replace the horn on one of my saddles or if it is even worth it.

the saddle is a sort of ranch cutter saddle that i have been doing a little bit of roping off of(mainly just in the branding pen so nothing too big) i have the horn wraped with some mule hide but i feel that the horn is just too small so i guess what im asking is if i were to do this where would i start.

thankyou.

Edited April 15, 2010 by rcjunky007

[rcjunky007]

oh come on all this knowledge and no help??

[colttrainer]

I was waiting for the pros to respond, but seeing as they have not here is my 2 cents. To replace the horn requires removing all the leather & sending the tree out so they can remove the rawhide, replace the horn & re cover the tree.

If you are not letting your dally slip on the horn & are using rubber on it then wrap more rubber on it, but to much & you then have no horn cap. So the best is to buy a saddle with a horn to your liking.

Al

[jwwright]

I personally would not mess with replacing the horn.........unless the current horn is broken loose , or something like that. Otherwise, if I couldn't live with the horn the way it was, I would trade saddles. Depending upon what tree is in this saddle of yours, it may not be suitable for anything other than very light roping. Many of the ranch cutters being made, especially those coming from production shops, have narrow bars with no bar riser on them, similar to regular cutting bars............I have seen quite a few broken. One other thing.....I know it can be scary roping on those small horns with mulehide...............it takes several turns to get anything slowed or stopped, and that rope runs wicked fast. There is no shame in rubber on the horn.........better to be a cowpuncher with all your digits, rather than trying to be too buckaroo with a burnt up hand. JW

[Steve Brewer]

IT is a very time consuming job.First tear down your saddle,take the skirts off,pull the fork cover off and take the gullet cover off.Need to wet the horn until you can unlace down to the fork.Pull the screws and pull the old horn out.Get a repair horn from a tree maker .Soak it until the rawhide is pliable.Now keep it centered and hope it fits in the reseeced place the old horn was in,Add yuor screws and bolts.Now streth the rawhide back over the forks and lace under the gullet.Let dry working out the slack..after drying recover horn,put the gullet cover on and hope the old fork cover will still work.Put back togather and your ready to go

[GAP]

Just as Steve said, you might want some wood putty to fill the gaps up to the rawhide cover.

If you want just something to increase the size easily, you can use casting from your vet supply, and shape if to your desire.

[rcjunky007]

thankyou everyone for your help.

its not that i cant handle it with this horn its just that a igger horn would make it alot easier.

i will probly just invest in a new saddle of my liking but until then ill just have to cope with dallying a few more times around the horn like i said i do fine even with the larger cattle.