Tulsan's Gadget Makes Saddling a Cinch 03/04/1989 TULSA WORLD (FINAL HOME EDITION Edition), Page c1 of Farm, Business
A Tulsa man has developed a device which allows a child to securely saddle a horse in a matter of seconds. Eddie G. Crosby calls his invention the Quick Cinch. He believes it will revolutionize the way horses are saddled. "I started thinking about it a couple years ago," he said, "after seeing what a hard time my wife had getting a saddle on, and cinched up tight. There's got to be a better way to do that, I told myself." Crosby thinks he has found that way. After experimenting with a number of prototypes, he came up with a device which does the job. He borrowed money to produce the first few hundred Quick Cinches, and he patented the invention.
The Quick Cinch replaces the leather latigo with a leather and stainless steel tightening device. Instead of wrapping the latigo, snugging it up, wrapping it again, and snugging it up again, Quick Cinch tightens the cinch with one motion of a stainless steel lever. It locks into place automatically. "If I throw the blanket and saddle up on the horse for her," Crosby said, "my 7-year-old daughter can finish the job in under 15 seconds. And the saddle is on good and tight - it's not going to shift around. I can go from saddle and blanket on the ground to fully saddled horse in under 20 seconds." Crosby expects the Quick Cinch to be popular with riders other than just women and children. He hopes to sell it to any rider in competition which demands quick saddling.
Some examples would be competition trail rides and endurance races, which are timed from the second a horse is unsaddled. The device has another advantage, he said. Some horses bloat up with air when the cinch is tightened, making it hard to get the saddle on tight. With Quick Cinch, the horse doesn't have time to bloat up. As soon as the horse feels pressure of the girth strap, the job is done.
Crosby experimented with many designs for the Quick Cinch before he hit on one that he was satisfied would be strong and dependable. "I tested it on a hydraulic press, and it held up to 6,000 pounds of pressure before it started to bend," he said. "No horse is going to put that much stress on the strap."
The Quick Cinch has a cast stainless steel lever device which slips through the top of the D-ring on the saddle, and lodges firmly in place. A leather strap connects the lever to the girth ring. The strap is adjusted to fit around the horse's girth with a little tension. When the lever is raised the girth strap is drawn tight. The device works with either a 2 1/2- to 3-inch D-ring.
Crosby, a machinist by trade, plans to make a family business out of manufacturing the Quick Cinch. He hopes to eventually buy a ranch, where he will hold trail rides and Christian retreats. He plans to sell the Quick Cinch, through mail order, and tack and feed stores. "I think it's going to go really well," he said. "Everybody I've showed it to thought it was a great idea. Lots of people have told me they want to buy one as soon as I can market it."
