Flat Plate Rigging

[Cowboy316]

howdy all you saddle makers

just was curious bout your flat plat rigging designs im lookin for a 7/8 or 3/4 design

and wanted to see the different way you guys made them if you can help me out id be greatful

thanks guys

Cowboy316

[horsewreck]

You might want to get your hands on volume one of Al Stohlman's books on saddle making. He does a real good job of teaching how to get the different rigging in right, well worth the money...... Jeff

[jwwright]

Just some general ideas for you Cowboy........................Most saddle makers like to have 6 1/4" - 6 3/4" of drop in the rigging............that is, measuring down from the low point of the front bar pad, down to the rigging hardware where the latigo will hang. Some go a little higher, some as low as 7". Generally, I keep mine about 6 1/2". I sure don't want my rigging hardware to be laying up on the skirt, ..........it needs to be dropped below the skirt. Ideally for me, with the top of the cut opening above the hardware, ending up just below skirt level. I also like to have enough rigging leather ahead of the cantle point in back to get at least one solid screw in there also, in addition to several further back. I don't have any photos handy here on the computer , but if you'll go to Steve Mason's website.................www.stevemasonsaddles.com , and then go from there to his Blog, Steve has quite a few photos and posts relating to saddle construction that are very good. Seems to me that there were several showing how puts his rigs in. Hope this helps, JW.

[David Genadek]

Cowboy 316

There are a few things you should keep it at the top of your mind when designing a rigging. The most important of which is where the tree was designed to be placed on the horse. There are basically two schools on thisthe first school or the traditional school seeks to get the rider is close tothe base of the wither as possible as anatomically this is where the horse is best equipped to carry the rider. The newer school tries to center the saddle on the anticlinal vertebrae which is generally found to be the third rib up from the hindquarter. Unfortunately this weights the lumbar span and causes stifle and hock problems none the less it has become the popular line of thought today. So when you are determining your D position the first question you need to have an answer to is Where was the tree designed to sit ?

Your next question is going to be; Where do you want your cinch to lie? Here again there are two basic thoughts the traditional thought of behind the furthest point that the elbow will go back or the currently popular thought of being in the girth groove. One should first ask; Why is the girth groove there? You will hear that you need to have the girth in the girth groove so that it rests on the sternum and as such you will be anchoring to something solid, the sternum is made of cartilage. The second reality here is that the sternum is up much higher in the body than people think which you can verify very easily with any anatomy book , you will find that at best you could only catch the very tail end of it. Further the sternum is made of cartilage as are the costal cartilages which is what the cinch will actually be resting on. Some current research being done over in Europe is showing that these currently popular concepts of where the cinch should go are cracking and displacing the costal cartilages(this is the cartilage that goes from the end of the rib up to the sternum). So before one goes about designing the rigging one should have a clear perspective of the facts and how they see them, as it is the actual anatomy of the horse and the laws of physics that will determine what you need to do.

As for the laws of physics, the flat plate rigging is a triangular configuration. The designcenters around the engineering principle that states; If you have a triangle and you pull on the point of the triangle the pressure will go to where the area of the triangle is divided in half. This should be the overriding principle used when laying out the shape of the flat plate. One must also take into account that most flat plate riggings also have the rear billet which means it is a hybrid between a triangular configuration and a double configuration. If whoever is using the saddle is tightening the rear cinch the shape of the triangle becomes less critical.

David Genadek

Edited September 3, 2010 by David Genadek

[Denise]

Cowboy,

Here is an older discussion on the topic that has a few pictures and a couple diagrams from Keith Seidel that you may find helpful.

http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=906

[jwwright]

Thanks for bringing up that older thread Denise. I have built about 35 plate riggings in the 2 1/2 years or so since I started that thread. I took all the good advice given there, and spent alot of time modifying plate rig patterns..........including trials runs riding just the bare tree and rigging. I came up with a design that works well for me and my customers. I build them pretty much the same whether for straight ranch saddles , or ranch/performance combos......................only difference being that I will use a lighter weight strap leather for the rigs on ranch cutters, etc. I seldom build any dropped D rigs now, although one of my current personal saddles is rigged that way JW.