Superior Saddlery — Andy Maschke
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Certified Used Saddles — David Solum
History
No western saddle carries a more layered history than the cow horse saddle. It descends from two traditions — the working ranch saddle of the open range and the precision-bred reining saddle of the arena — and it had to answer for both before the NRCHA ever held its first competition.
The story of the cow horse saddle begins not in a competition arena but on the open grasslands of Spanish California, where mounted vaqueros developed a system of horsemanship that prioritized patience, precision, and an almost telepathic connection between rider and horse. The saddles they used were built for long days and hard work — wide trees to distribute weight across a horse's back through rugged terrain, deep seats to keep a rider planted through unpredictable cattle moves, and horns designed not for decoration but for dallying a rope after a catch.
What distinguished California vaquero saddle tradition from the rest of the American West was the emphasis on the bridle horse — a horse so well trained it could be ridden in a spade bit with the reins draped loosely across the horn. The saddle had to accommodate that style of riding. It could not interfere with the rider's seat or restrict lateral leg cues. For the first time, western saddle construction began to evolve around the demands of refined cow work rather than simple utility.
As cattle ranching spread east from California across Nevada, Utah, and into the Great Plains during the mid-1800s, the vaquero's refined tradition blended with the more utilitarian demands of large-scale cattle operations. The saddles of this era were built to survive. Double-rigged trees, thick leather skirts, stout horns wrapped in rawhide — these were tools first and status symbols a distant second.
What these working saddles developed, without any deliberate engineering, was a geometry that would later prove ideal for reined cow horse competition: a seat that held the rider in balance without pinching, a cantle tall enough to support through sudden stops, and a fork that allowed a rider's leg to hang free and communicate quietly with the horse's shoulder. The ranchers who built these saddles were solving practical problems. They had no idea they were laying the foundation for a sport.
Large-scale cattle operations demand saddles built for multi-day hard use. The double-rigged working saddle becomes standard across the western range, establishing tree geometry that will persist through a century of refinement.
Informal cattle sorting and cutting contests among ranchers begin formalizing into recognized competitions. Cowboys compete on their working horses using their working saddles — the first cow horse events have no specialized tack requirements whatsoever.
The National Cutting Horse Association formalizes cutting as a standalone discipline. Cutting saddle design begins diverging from general cow horse work — flatter seats, more dropped rigging, taller horns. The cow horse saddle retains features cutting would eventually abandon.
The National Reining Horse Association establishes reining as a judged discipline in the same year as the NCHA. Reining saddle development accelerates — forward balance, flat seat, minimal bulk. These innovations will later influence the cow horse saddle's competition evolution.
The National Reined Cow Horse Association is established the same year as both the NCHA and NRHA, a coincidence that underscores how rapidly western competition was formalizing after World War II. The NRCHA's founding mission — to preserve the tradition of the working ranch horse in a competitive format — directly shaped what the cow horse saddle would need to become.
As NRCHA competition grows, custom saddle makers begin responding to the dual demands of reining pattern work and cattle events. The cow horse saddle starts taking on a distinct identity — borrowing the close-contact seat of the reining saddle while retaining the deeper cantle support needed for fence work and boxing.
Custom makers including Bob's Custom Saddle begin producing purpose-built cow horse designs. The Lady Cowhorse line, built specifically for NRCHA demands, becomes a benchmark. The saddle's defining characteristic — supporting a rider equally through a sliding stop and a hard fence run — is finally codified in hardware and leather.
Andy Maschke's Superior Saddlery develops the JK Cowhorse/Reiner, a model built around the demands of NRCHA competitors at the highest levels. The SYMMETREES™ tree technology — precision-built in-house rather than sourced from outside suppliers — brings engineering consistency to a saddle category that had been dominated by individual custom craftsmanship.
Modern NRCHA competition places demands on a saddle that no other western discipline can match. The same horse and rider must complete reining patterns, run the fence, and work a cow in a single go. The saddle that enables all three without compromise is the product of 150 years of iterative development — and it is still being refined today.
Every other western competition saddle is optimized for a single discipline. The reining saddle sacrifices cattle-work support for pattern precision. The cutting saddle sacrifices reining geometry for free-rein security. The ranch saddle sacrifices competition refinement for working durability. The cow horse saddle cannot make any of those trade-offs — and that constraint is what makes it genuinely unique in western tack history.
It is the only saddle that must perform at the highest level across three fundamentally different athletic demands in a single competitive day. That history — rooted in the California vaquero tradition, forged on the open range, and refined through 75 years of NRCHA competition — is visible in every dimension of its construction.
Sponsored By
David Solum — Certified Used Saddles
David Solum has been buying and selling certified used cow horse saddles for over 40 years. Every saddle in his inventory has been personally inspected and honestly described. If you're looking for a used Bob's Custom Lady Cowhorse or a Superior JK Cowhorse/Reiner, David is your source.
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