new taps

[HorsehairBraider]

Wow these are great looking taps. The tooling and construction are top notch. One question though....what are taps for? Sorry, I'm a city dude. No taps in the ghetto.

The taps (or tapaderos) go on the stirrups of a saddle. And not on a motorcycle saddle! It's got a couple of purposes - it stops brush and sticks and so on going through the stirrup as you are riding through thick brush, and it also stops the rider's foot from going all the way through the stirrup (which would be a complete disaster). It's probably not intentional, but it also helps keep your feet a little warmer on those really cold windy days when you are out doing chores.

[Denise]

It's probably not intentional, but it also helps keep your feet a little warmer on those really cold windy days when you are out doing chores.

Up here it is not uncommon to have them sheepskin lined especially for that purpose for winter riding. And flapping the long ends at a cow can often get them moving when they have decided to stand there staring at you. Which direction they go depends on your skill in reading cattle, however. Multi-tasking horse gear!!

[grumpyguy]

Those are great!

Your own design? I favor these longer "eagle beak" types and since often they are used as mentioned before to keep feet warm (For some reason it is harder to keep feet warm when mounted on a horse then when you're afoot, even in snow.) they are usually subject to adverse weather and moisture. That often results in the ends curling up. Many makers will stitch a heavy weight triangular leather piece on the bottom ends to serve as wieghts to discourage the curling. With regular care and oiling this works well. I have not made the long taps like these and have been wanting to give it a try myself. Your fine job inspires me to get to it sooner than later. Very, very classy job.

By the way they are right, scrap sheep shearling does make wonderful liners for these and it is really effective in insulating toes even when wet or damp, so keep your scraps.

[superchute]

I would love a copy of them to make some like them. My dad is kinda short and is thinking he would like to hook a second strup to the bottom of the first to make it ezer to get on for him that a set of taps like that would help hide the other strups but would look great for parides and riding on the ranch. The hiden sturp would make so dad would not have to jump or lift his leg so high.

Vary nice job looks great.

Russell

[Beaverslayer]

Very fine looking work Rawhider. Thanks for sharing.

Ken