coriaceam

( coraza [korása] < coracha < Latin coriaceam 'leathery' or 'made of leather,' via Mozarabic)

   Adams provides the following gloss: "The covering of a saddle, at first made of two pieces of leather stitched together through the middle, with a hole cut for the fork and a slit for the cantle. It was worked and shaped to fit the tree, and, after the rigging was in place, was slipped down over the saddle and buckled or laced in front of the horn." The DRAE glosses coraza as the part of the mount that covers the saddletree. It is made of embroidered leather. Santamaría indicates that it is generally part of a cowboy's saddle and consists of a wide mantlelike piece of leather that hangs from both sides of the saddle and protects the rider's legs from the animal's sweat. Cobos references it as an "ornamental saddle covering popular in Territorial New Mexico."