What are tapaderos?

Tapaderos are a leather hood that goes in front of a (western) stirrup. Their primary purpose might seem to be to act as safety stirrups - preventing the foot from slipping through.

That's actually a secondary purpose. The primary purpose of the tapadero is to prevent brush, branches, etc from catching in the stirrup. Tapaderos are seldom seen today, but are still sometimes used in parades (for decorative purposes), for children (for the safety purpose) and when riding in wilderness or on the range.

Me and Greg on mules at the Grand Canyon. With tapaderos - in this case, over ninety percent of the riders have never been in the saddle before. And there's quite a bit of brush further down...