Mexican horse tack. Argentina. Early 20th century.

Leather and metal. In its front portion, the beak or pommel, decorated with low silver plates, which also surrounds the edge of the comb. In the latter, with an ad hoc decoration determined by its owner; in the center with a sun with a face and flaming rays, framed by two garlands. It has stirrups with a capacho-type sole. The saddle and stirrups are generally in good shape, with some slight loss to the wing, and missing stitching. 

In Argentina, surprisingly, Mexican saddles -with and without spout- and cowboy saddles were used for many decades, also with variants. In the first decades of the last century, we have a copy in our library, the old saddlery and tannery Casimiro Gómez published his catalogs where we find both; the “cowboy” model was presented in three versions: “Texas”, “Colorado” and the “Far West” itself. In the same way, and with small design variants, these frames were sold by the “Saddlery of the ranchers for the whole country”, the famous Casa Arias.

In North America, “western” riding is a school inherited from Mexican horsemen. In our example, the model is linked to the old Californian saddles and the later ones of the cowboys, although it has certain details that allow us to identify it as the heir in its style of the saddles used by the Mexican cowboys of the 19th century. "The head of the saddle evolved over time, to have a larger horn in the shape of a plateau, which was used to hold the rope after roping a cattle or another horse." (1)

Note:

1. Alicia María González: When the North became the West: From cowboy to cowboys. In "America land of horsemen”. Citibanamex, Mexico City, 2018, p. 179.