Ranquilco has a wide variety of saddles, including English jumping saddles and polo saddles. Most of our saddles, however, are various traditional saddles from the provinces in Argentina. They are all slightly different as they developed according to the terrain, type of work and type of horse found in those provinces.
Most saddles on the ranch are the basic cangalla type which have a full bar tree and are covered in leather. The stirrup rigging is placed in a forward position and the western style cinch and latigo system is rigged in the middle of the saddle. Sky and many of our gauchos use a treeless saddle, or bastos o lomillo, which are the original saddles of the gauchos, as they could be made by hand with basic materials available in the middle of the pampas (shown in photo above).
Hand woven blankets and felt pads are placed under the saddles to create adequate padding as the saddle trees are generally bare (without their own padding as in an English saddle). On top of the saddle is placed another woven blanked followed by a “pellon” which is a hand softened and double sewn sheep hide combined with a goat skin. This is for rider comfort, especially on those all day rides!
All leather parts and counter parts of our tack are hand made from hides from the estancia or nearby.
Learn the lingo:
saddle – montura
stirrup leather – estribero
stirrup – estribo
cinch – sincha
latigo – correa
woven blanket – pelera
felt pad – mandil
sheep skin – pellon
over cinch – sobre sincha
headstall – cabesada
bit – freno
curb strap – barbija o barbada
throat latch – fiador
brow band – frentera
halter – bosal
lead rope – cabrestro
lariat – lazzo
spurs – espuelas
breast collar – pretal
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