By Craig Morse, author of Thoughts for Prayer: A Cowboy’s Perspective
Have you ever wondered about the latigo hanger?
Most people who have never sat in a western saddle have never heard of one. Even plenty of riders give it little thought. It’s a small strap or keeper on the saddle, easy to overlook. Nobody admires it in a tack shop. Nobody brags about theirs. And yet I’ve come to believe it is one of the best pictures I know of how God watches over us, and of why prayers for safety matter so much in everyday life.
A Small Piece With a Big Job
The latigo is the long leather strap that holds the cinch in place and keeps the saddle secure on the horse. Once you’ve tightened the cinch, there’s usually a good length of latigo left over. That extra leather has to go somewhere.
That’s the job of the latigo hanger. It holds the excess latigo up and out of the way so it can’t become tangled with the rider, the horse or another part of the saddle.
It sounds like a minor detail, until you think about what happens without it. A loose latigo left dangling can wrap around a horse’s leg and injure the horse, the rider and the saddle. It can wrap around the rider’s leg, too, and keep them from getting free of the saddle. A rider who gets hung up in the saddle is in a truly dangerous spot.
So this humble little piece of leather, one you could easily forget is there, has real purpose and real value. It quietly protects against dangers most of us never see coming.
The Protection We Don’t Notice
I learned to ride on my grandmother’s farm, and years later I taught horsemanship at a Christian camp. If horses teach you anything, it’s that safety lives in the details. A good horseman checks the cinch, looks over the tack and pays attention to the small things, because the small things are often what keep everyone out of trouble.
The longer I thought about the latigo hanger, the more it reminded me of how God cares for us. So much of His protection is like that strap: quiet, steady and mostly unnoticed. We tend to thank God for the big rescues, the near miss on the highway or the test result that came back clear. But how many dangers has He kept out of our path that we never even knew were there?
Scripture tells us the Lord watches over our coming and going (Psalm 121). That includes the ordinary trips to work, the drive to pick up the kids and the long day in the field. His care isn’t only for the dramatic moments. It’s woven into the small ones, too.
Loose Ends in Our Own Lives
There’s another lesson in that extra length of leather.
Most of us carry some “loose latigo” of our own: worries we haven’t handed over, habits that tangle us up, unfinished business, fears that wrap around our thoughts when we least expect it. Left to dangle, these things can trip us up and put us in a precarious spot, just like a loose strap around a rider’s leg.
Prayer is one way we gather up those loose ends and put them where they belong. When we bring our concerns to God, we’re not pretending the danger isn’t real. We’re admitting that we need help keeping things secure, and trusting the One who can do what we can’t.
Praying for the People We Love
Some of my most honest prayers have been for other people’s safety: family on the road, friends facing a hard season, folks whose work puts them in harm’s way. Maybe you know that feeling. You can’t ride alongside everyone you love, and you can’t check every cinch for them.
But you can pray.
Praying for someone’s safety is a way of loving them when your hands are tied. It turns worry into trust. It reminds us that the people we care about are held by Someone far more faithful than we are. If you’re looking for a place to start, the prayers for safety on this site are a good place to begin.
A Simple Prayer for Safety
If you’d like, here is a short prayer you can make your own:
Lord, thank You for the protection I see and the protection I never notice. Thank You for keeping dangers out of my path that I didn’t even know were there. Gather up the loose ends in my life, the worries and fears that want to tangle me up, and keep them in Your hands. Watch over the people I love today, on the road, at work and at home. Help me trust You with what I can’t control. Amen.
You don’t need special words. God hears a plain prayer as clearly as a polished one.
Finding Your Own Reminders to Pray
You don’t have to own a saddle to pray this way. That’s really the heart of cowboy prayers. They’re simply prayers that grow out of the things right in front of us.
Maybe for you it’s the seatbelt you click every morning, the lock on your front door or the railing on the stairs. Each of those small things does a quiet job of keeping you safe. Each one can become a reminder to stop for a moment and thank God for His protection, or to ask Him to watch over someone you love.
Look around. Pay attention. Find the things that remind you of God, and pray.
About Thoughts for Prayer
The latigo hanger is one of many pieces of horse tack that inspired my book, Thoughts for Prayer: A Cowboy’s Perspective. It’s a Christian prayer book with 31 prayers for safety, strength, encouragement, rest and the everyday moments when we need to turn toward God. Each one is paired with hand-drawn illustrations from a cowboy’s life.
Whether you’re strengthening a prayer life you’ve had for years or looking for a fresh way to begin, I hope it encourages you to see God’s care in the small things.