A lot of the old guys I grew up around in ranch country had saddle ring 94 winchester carbines. They said that the great thing about it was you could just hang the rifle from the saddle horn and not worry about loosing it out of a scabbard, and it served as a safety to keep the rifle from sliding out of the scabbard
 From my personal experience I find little difference between carrying a 20 inch or 24 inch lever rifle such as the 95 and 94 winchesters or any of the Marlins and Savage.
So I would say it just mostly depends on your preference after the horse is tied or hobbled.

1887's were certainly having their moment in the Arizona territory back in the days of yore...

SASS default is to load no more than 2, but many clubs including most around here,  state "87's and 97's may be stoked on the clock" in the stage instructions.

RRio
That sounds great! I never understood not allowing magazine shotguns to be fully loaded. If the dbl. barrel guys feel handicapped by that they can always switch to one themselves.
Macon Due 29445

Go a bit further back and guerillas, I do not really remember reading much about carbines with them.  I read shotguns, then pistols, lots and lots of pistols.