Early Hope & Texas saddles....

[IowaYank]

Re: Early Hope & Texas saddles....

Mark, thanks for the correction! Learn something new everyday.

[Ken Knopp]

Re: Early Hope & Texas saddles....

Casey: Hey! I found a reference to your quote.....about early roping in California. English Capt George Vancouver a famous British naval explorer (and founder of Vancouver Canada) landed in southern California in Nov. 1792. There he was treated to a roundup of cattle by local Mexican soldiers. Each man had a lasso of either braided horsehair or rawhide with a long running noose...”this is thrown with great dexterity whilst a full speed, and nearly with a certainty, over the horns of the animals, by two men, one on each side of the ox. at the same instant of time; and having a strong high-peaked pummel to their saddles, each takes a turn round it with the end of the line”. SOURCE: Los Mestenos, Spanish Ranching in Texas, 1721-1821, By Jack Jackson, Pg. 82.

Here is another earlier reference to roping in Texas.....Pierre Marie Franççois de Pagèès, was a French naval officer, world traveler, and writer. Following the settlement of the Seven Years' War, Pagèès traveled to North American and crossed Texas on the first lap of a journey around the world. Leaving his naval vessel at Santo Domingo on June 30, 1767, he sailed to New Orleans, traveled by the Mississippi and Red rivers to Natchitoches, then across Texas and into Mexico by way of the Old San Antonio Road. He returned to France by way of the Far East and then wrote an account of his adventure. The English translation of his book, “Travels Round the World, in the Years 1767, 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771 (1791)”, is perhaps the oldest description of Texas in an English-language book. While in Texas he wrote some very interesting descriptions of Spanish clothing, uniforms, horses, culture, etc....including saddlery. Which by description, appears to be much closer to Old Spain patterns than that found in New Spain later at the turn of the century.
Pagees talks about the use of Pike Poles being used to gather and spear livestock but also roping.....”The in habitants of San Antonio are exellent horsemen, and particularly fond of unting or lacing (sic...lassoing) their wild animals” He observed that hunters seldom failed to catch the cattle around the neck or horns with a cast of the loop. About the same time he also witnessed “tailing” cattle in the interior of Mexico. That is, riding along side an animal seizing and jerking the tail upward to break the animal’s stride thus dumping it on its nose. The Vaquero’s would then quickly dismount and tie its feet with a short rope.

So here, we now know that roping has origins that date back at least to 1767 in Texas and in particular team roping going back to at least 1792 in California! This is new information to me!

Bill: Good eye! The “Dicks and Waters” saddle on my web site is indeed an early Spanish saddle. The makers label on it dates it to approx. 1840. We found early advertisements for this firm up until 1840 while afterwards references could no longer be found.


Dan: Please understand that the title “Ashford” is a photo file reference of mine. It in no way indicates the name of the saddle. That saddle is indeed an Attakapas. Sorry for the confusion. Yours certainly has some of the same features. Too bad the horn is missing!

Larry: Yes sir! The Santa Anna saddle you note is a Mexican variation of the “Jineta”. The owners of that saddle are friends of mine with an incredible collection of western items including some very relevant saddles. I hope to go photograph them later this year. Another of Gen. Santa Anna’s saddles was captured at the April 21st, 1836 battle of San Jacinto by Houston’s Texas Army. It too is a Mexican “jineta” saddle but with more of the classic style "Jineta" riding horn than the one you note. It can be found at the Sam Houston Memorial Museum. Google both for photos.



I will open a new thread on the Attakapas with more info. It deserves its own thread for research purposes.

Ken R Knopp

[ButtermilkRanger]

Re: Early Hope & Texas saddles....

Ken,

Is the Sam Houston Memorial Museum you speak of the one on the campus of Sam Houston State University in Huntsville? If so, I've examined that saddle and accompanying tack as much as I could when my son was a student there. It's pretty interesting and I've got pictures of it online somewhere. I would have called it a "half-Spanish", but my knowledge of saddles is nil compared to yours. So much of that saddle has solid gold and silver accents like the eagle head pommel and much of the hardware on the bridle. For the material culture gurus on this forum, there is also Sam's jaguar skin vest, which has some very fine hand-stitching detail as well.

[Ken Knopp]

Re: Early Hope & Texas saddles....

Larry, the "Half-Spanish" saddle is a whole new topic. It originated in St. Louis (probably by Grimsley or others there about 1830). Still, it too has origins in Spain as a hybrid evolution of the "jineta". The term "Half Spanish" is a bit of a mis-nomer. It is actually one half Spanish (jineta) and the other half- "American". The "American" half is too, another interesting story. It is its own pattern.....But, I dont want to get into all of that here or now. Its just too much for this thread.

Below is a photograph of the "captured" Santa Anna saddle.

Ken R Knopp