anquera

(Sp. model spelled same [arjkera] < Italian or Old Provencal anca 'croup or hindquarters' plus Spanish suffix -era, 'place where something is used'; hence, 'an item that is used on the horse's hindquarters')

   Mexico and California: 1881. A wide, often highly decorated piece of leather at the base of a western saddle lacking a rear jockey. Watts indicates that the anquera was used when another rider was placed to the rear of the first. Its practical function was to safeguard the second rider from contact with a sweaty horse. Other sources (including Blevins and Rossi, as cited in Watts) claim that the anquera had principally a decorative function. This term is not found in the DRAE, but the DM defines it as a type of leather cover attached to the cantle behind the saddle. Decorated with a string of small iron bells, it covers the horse's hindquarters and extends to the hocks. It is used in the breaking of a horse and as protection during bullfights or when the animal is thrown on the ground. According to Santamaría, the term is rarely used in Spanish today. The anquera is considered a characteristic feature of nineteenth-century Mexican saddles.