Modern Vaquero Horsemanship
Clinics, Training, Lessons
Contact info
(775) 427-5570
e-mail modernvaquero@yahoo.com
5555 Candee Ln Fallon, NV 89406
Braided Rawhide Gear
A brief history of braided rawhide takes us back centuries to Arabia. The braided gear that we associate today with the Vaquero was fist brought to Spain by the conquering Moors and later refined by the California Vaqueros.
Reata
The practice of roping livestock was unheard of prior to the Vaquero. When the Spanish first came to the new world they brought with them the garrochas that they used to work livestock back in Europe. The garrocha is a long pole usually 10‘-12’ long with a length of rope attached at the end. The garrocha pole was used to guide the rope loop around the neck of whatever animal needed to be controlled. This method is still used in Europe, South and Central America, and Asia today.
The pole used for the garrocha was a direct descendant of the knight’s war lance. It was however soon found to be impractical in the sage brush and low hanging branches of the oak trees that cover California.
The solutions was to abandon the pole and begin using the rope alone. The materials being limited to grasses and rawhide, it was soon found that rawhide was the most practical for use on the ranchos.
Cattle where abundant and rawhide was easy to come by. A reata could be braided by a Vaquero in his spare time for personal use or for trade. If a reata was broken it was relatively easy to splice it back together for temporary use while a new one was made. The broken reata could still be used for lead ropes, reins, quirts, etc. Some reatas were twisted instead of braided but these could not be easily fixed if broken. Some Vaquero used the maguey rope. The maguey was also twisted but it was made from the fibers of the maguey cactus. Even with their other options, the braided reata was still strongly favored.
The ability to effectively use the reata soon became a badge of honor and the source of good natured competition. This practice was taken to the extreme with the California Vaqueros practice of roping bears.
Spade bit
Many people see the spade as being a very severe bit. This comes from a misunderstanding of the anatomy of the horse’s mouth and how the spade bit works. The spade is not a leverage bit in the way that many other bits are. It does not work off of the leverage from the mouthpiece and the curb strap. That is why you do not see knowledgeable spade bit trainers using a chain curb strap. The spade bit does not just hang in the horse’s mouth, as do most other bits. The spade is held by the horse in it’s mouth and thus the signals sent by the rider take less pressure to be transmitted. The spade bit also has much more surface area lying inside the horse’s mouth and therefore gives the horse more to hold on to. Any bit can injure a horses mouth if it is not used properly but the grazer style bits can cut a horses mouth more easily than a spade. When talking about the spade bit one thing that must never be overlooked is all the work that goes into training a horse before the bit ever goes in the horse’s mouth. The spade bit is used as an aid in cueing the horse, not as a means of forcing the horse into compliance. Interestingly many of the western bits used today can be found in European museums and historical texts. Even many of the “new” correction bits have counterparts dating back to the middle ages and renaissance. Another side note: the Vaquero used many other styles of mouth piece in his bits. Not every horse responds best to a spade and the Vaquero had a lot of other tools at his disposal. Examples of the Chileno (ring bit), half breed, Mona Lisa, etc will be added to this page soon.
The spade bit traces it’s origins all the way back to ancient Rome. You can find examples of ancient Roman bits with the classic spoon mouth piece that makes the spade bit so unique. The Moors who controlled Spain through the dark ages introduced this style of bit to the Europeans. The Moorish bits evolved through the middle ages and renaissance and eventually developed into the spade bit favored by the California Vaqueros.
Romal Reins
The classic braided rawhide romal reins that we associate with the reined working cow horse today come directly from the California Vaquero. These reins are a simple adaptation of the single rein that has been used since man first bridled the horse. The addition of a whip to the end of the reins was a logical step forward for the Vaquero. When the Vaqueros began using the reata to catch cattle and horses they could no longer carry a whip or bat so they simply incorporated it to the end of the reins. The romal attached to the end of the reins had the added benefit of adding balance to the reins when held in the off hand.
Again the Vaqueros turned to rawhide as the material of choice although horse hair, flat leather and braided leather was some times used. The base of the reins could be braided just as the reata was but much more intricate braiding patterns soon developed. The real genius of this design was the addition of the buttons and barrels braided onto the reins. This knot work was added to the ends of the reins to add weight and balance. This added weight helps to keep the reins from swinging and bouncing when the horse is being worked. The knot work has the added benefit of providing a little protection for the reins by keeping the main body of the reins off the horse’s neck. The knot work ends up taking the majority of the sweat from the horse’s neck and it is a lot easier to replace a few buttons and barrels than to replace an entire set of reins.
Rein Chains
The Vaqueros added a length of chain to the end of their rawhide reins for additional balance and to help preserve the ends of the reins. The rein chains also help to maintain a light mouth in a bridle horse. The chains allow the Vaquero to use a very light touch on the reins and still get enough pressure change to cue his horse. Another often overlooked but very important advantage to having rein chains is to help preserve the rawhide reins. If the reins where attached directly to the bit you would not be able to let your horse drink without getting the rawhide wet. With rein chains the rawhide stays dry and only the chains and bit get wet.
Spurs
Like most Vaquero gear, the classic Vaquero spurs date back to the knights of Europe. You can find examples of these spurs in the museums of Spain, Portugal, and even Germany. Some of these spurs are identical in appearance and function as those used by the old time Vaqueros and the Vaqueros of today. You can find renaissance paintings of Spanish nobility who’s spurs are almost identical to Vaquero spurs all the way down to the jinglebobs. When looking at these spurs many people see the big rowels with all those points sticking out and think that they are a very severe spur. Like bits, any spur can be misused. But the size of the rowel does not determine the severity of the spur. The severity of the spur is determined by the distance between the points on the rowels. The closer together the points are, the milder the spur. Many Vaquero spurs have the points so close together that it is much like using a round disk instead of a pointed rowel. The length of the spur shank is also not a function a severity. The most important aspect of the shank length is in relation to the length of the riders legs and the size of the horse. If the rider has long legs, then that rider can often benefit form a longer shank spur in order to make proper contact. If a rider has very short legs, then a short shank spur is usually best. Hackamore/Bosal Quirt Chaps (pronounced “shaps“) are another item that come directly from the Vaquero. This simple set of leather leggings where so practical that they are still in common use over 200 years after the Vaqueros started using them in the sage brush of the California hills. While chaps can be found in many variations, the shotgun chaps where the most common used by the Vaquero. Many of the Texas and Midwestern cowboys favored the batwing style but the California Vaquero has always stayed true to tradition and stuck with the shotgun style. Tapaderos are the stirrup coverings used by the Vaquero to protect their feet from brush. What makes the tapaderos of the California Vaquero unique is the length they favored. Most of the Vaquero style tapaderos hung down well below the stirrups and came to a point. Some of them were so long that while riding on side hills the tips would be touching the ground. While this may seem excessive, it does have a practical purpose. The longer tapaderos are very useful for “flagging” cattle and getting them turned back while parting them out.
The hackamore is a braided rawhide nose band (bosal) with a macate attached for reins that has traditionally been used by Vaqueros for starting young horses. The bosal part of the hackamore comes in varying sizes depending on how far along a horse is in it’s training. A young horse will be ridden with a larger bosal than one that has been transitioned to two rein. With a two reined horse a smaller bosal goes under the bridle and helps the Vaquero to transition slowly to the use of the bit. An even smaller bosal commonly referred to a as pencil bosal is used on finished bridle horses in conjunction with a “get down” rope for those times when a rider needs to dismount.
Macate
The Macate is a hair rope used as reins with the hackamore and snaffle bit. The macate can be made of horse hair, goat hair and some times even human hair. The macate is commonly seen in 22 foot length for hackamores and snaffles but is also often seen in shorter length for “get down” ropes on finished bridle horses. These ropes are made in the same way as they have been for hundreds of years and a macate made today would not be at all out of place on the hackamore of a Vaquero of the 1800s
The quirt is just a short handle with a leather popper on the end used as a whip. The handle is again most commonly made of braided rawhide but leather, wood and even deer or elk horn are sometimes used. The quirt is used with young horses in conjunction with the hackamore or snaffle bit when the macate is being used. The quirt has a leather strap so that it can be conveniently hung around the wrist when it is not needed. A common misconception is that of the Vaquero whipping a bucking horse on the hind quarters in order to whip the buck out of him. The quirt was used to reach over the head of a bucking horse to pop them on the nose and cause him to lift his head. By making a bucking horse raise it’s head, it immediately stops bucking. The quirt is also used in the same manner which some modern trainers use a flag to encourage a horse to move in one direction or another both from the forehand and hindquarters.
Snaffle Bit
The snaffle is one of the most ancient of all the bits we use. With a simple broken mouth piece and rings on the sides it provides excellent lateral control. Contrary to some accounts, the snaffle was commonly used by the Vaqueros to start horses but reserved for those that did not give easily to lateral pressure. The snaffle was also used in conjunction with the hackamore to “tune up” a young horse that began getting heavy in the hackamore. In the European tradition, the snaffle was, and still is used for most of the work on young horses and remains in use on older horses as well. The Vaquero however, saw it a just one of many tools at his disposal to be use when needed but not exclusively relied on.
Saddles
The saddles of the Vaqueros where the fist saddles that we would recognize as a “western” saddle. These saddles where an adaptation of the Spanish war saddles used by the knights of Spain and brought to the New World by Spanish nobility. With the transition from the garrocha to the reata came the need for a saddle horn to dally to. Many of the European war saddles had a steel plate that was contoured in the front to form a saddle horn type shape. From this early saddle horn the knights hung their extra weapons such as the mace or war hammer. When the need to dally arose, the flat steel became a round horn and the western saddle was born. While Texas and the Midwest developed a stout, heavily built saddle, the Vaquero saddle developed into a much lighter, more refined piece of equipment. The difference came from the Texas and Midwestern tradition of tying on “hard and fast” in contrast to the Vaqueros who have always dallied around the saddle horn.
Chaps
Armitas 
Yet another invention of the Vaquero, the armitas are a shorter version of the chaps. Used in warmer climates, the armitas usually go down to just below the knee and are fringed on the legs and the waist. Currently seen in the form of “chinks”, these shorter style of chaps still provide good protection for the legs while being much cooler than the traditional full length chaps.
Tapaderos
