Saddle ID?

[James A. Page]

Been enthralled with all the interesting saddle-related threads and the confederatesaddles.com site. Makes me realize how much I still have to learn. Unfortunately, my enthusiasm has me taking pics of almost every saddle i come across.

Found these two saddles in a junk shop. One seems to be some sort of wierd, late McClellan. The other looks like either a Kilgore or a spring seat. Its tree has the distinctive right-angle bracket that i think is associated with a Somerset(?). Maybe some of you experts can help figure out what it is.

McClellan(?):<a href="http://s533.photobucket.com/albums/ee340/pagej66/?action=view&amp;current=P1000833.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i533.photobucket.com/albums/ee340/pagej66/P1000833.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

Kilgore(?): <a href="http://s533.photobucket.com/albums/ee340/pagej66/?action=view&amp;current=P1000832.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i533.photobucket.com/albums/ee340/pagej66/th_P1000832.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a>

Kilgore (?) tree: <a href="http://s533.photobucket.com/albums/ee340/pagej66/?action=view&amp;current=P1000828.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i533.photobucket.com/albums/ee340/pagej66/th_P1000828.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" ></a>

[Ken Knopp]

Re: Saddle ID?

Well, let me take a stabe off the top of my head at the first one....maybe it is some sort of commercial Whitman, or commercial "Park" saddle, police saddle (sometimes same as Park) or even a foriegn military saddle (ala Japanes?). I really dont know without doing some diggin around. I have seen similar saddles in catalogs particularly Whitman's and their successor Mehlback. Let me check on it.
The second one is a Spring Seat built on a Somerset tree. Saddles something like this were around before the war but very, very common in the post war commercial catalog boom. These were very common and popular "riding" saddles of the (post war) day (in many configurations and leather treatments). BIG sellers, so most eastern makers had them as a staple in their catalogs. They remained popular into the 1930's.

Ken R Knopp

[Outrider]

Re: Saddle ID?

I think Ken may have pegged the first correctly as a possible Police saddle or "Park" saddle. I was on a trip to St Louis one time and while visiting Forest Park, I got to chatting with a mounted officer who was standing near the stables holding his horse.We got to talking horse gear and I told him I was a mounted reenactor and blah blah blah. As he was not yet on duty, he very graciously -and surprisingly- offered to let me have a look at the stables, horses, etc. and walked me into the police barn! Anyway in a back corner tack room he showed me some older model saddles that the mounted force used from the 40's -60's for patrols in the park, big parades in the city , funerals ,and so on . There were two that were almost identical to the first one pictured. I remember them well as the trees they were built on struck me as being somewhat similar to later model McClellans and the rigging /hardware was much the same. Exceptionally well maintained I might add even though he told me they had not been on a horse since 1969 when they switched over to police model Tucker Brand suspended seat saddles.

Cool guy and I would not want his job.