While still in saddle school in the early eighties, I began studying what was going on out there in the real world of custom saddles. One of the little things I picked up on was the way Capriola’s (Elko, NV) was lacing their back jockeys together. It looked so clean, so refined…and it was different than the way most were doing it back then. I decided to add a slight taper to the lacing and the idea has stuck ever since then.
For years I cut the lace out of string latigo…splitting and beveling to suit. Nowadays I buy kangaroo lace that is ready to use from Jeff Minor from here in our valley. It’s thinner, yet has a much higher tensile strength than the cowhide latigo I once used. I also use kangaroo for lacing tie latigos onto the rigging hardware. Jeff orders his kangaroo directly from Australia and does a great job cutting and beveling.