The 1878 Drover Saddle
Until the early 1870s, the saddle horn and the fork were cut from one piece of wood. Unfortunately, the wooden horn had a tendency to break off when a heavy animal hit the end of the lariat, making the saddle useless for roping or working wild cattle.
The 1878 Drover, (Legacy's signature saddle) comes from the period when steel horns became readily available. Fenders appeared on stirrup leathers and full double-rigging was common.
The early Charro, with its single layer of leather covering the bars and only part of the cantle, gave way to the half-seat, where the cantle is completely covered and the leather of the seat extended forward, covering the bars, up to the back of the stirrup leathers.
The seat had also evolved to the point where a strainer, (some semi-rigid material, like a piece of tin can or stiff leather), was tacked between the bars, to keep the seat from sagging. An additional ground seat of several pieces of leather was added on top of the strainer, to give the working cowboy something more comfortable to sit on, than the wooden bars of his saddle tree. Only enough seat was built onto the tree to give a man a secure place to sit. The stirrup leathers remained in full view, which made them easy to inspect, care for and repair out on the trail.
Easy access for repair was also a strong reason for a common front rigging style, called Sam Stagg. A piece of leather was split so that a portion of it went across the swell in front of the horn, from one rigging ring to the other, and another part of the strap was crossed behind the horn, and back to the rings, to hold everything in place. There are several variations of this rigging style.
Two skirt styles were popular in this era: the rounded California skirt and the larger, square Texas skirt. Legacy offers both in its period-correct, trail drive era saddles.
The 1878 Drover uses the round skirt to fit today's shorter-backed horses. The cowboys of California used it for the same reason. Their wild mustangs usually had shorter backs.