New saddles surfacing to ponder.....

[Ken Knopp]

Its been quite a while since I have posted on this forum. Life issues have prevented me from doing a lot of the things I used to enjoy. One of my major distractions has been the completion of my latest book project. It is still a few months away from publication but finally coming to fruition. For a synopsis I refer you to my "Approved Vendor" link on this forum (or banner here: confederatesaddles.com) to reach the home page of my web site.

In the long course of research I have come across a mountain of new saddles that I believe members of this forum will find helpful or at least interesting....three of which I include today.

1. A Confederate officers Texas saddle. Rare enough but the story behind it is quite interesting. It was captured by a Federal soldier who "dispatched" its previous owner in battle. He sent the saddle home where it remained in the family until fairly recently. The saddle cloth and valise with are not original to the saddle but the saddle itself is pretty much all original. My take on it is that it is NOT a Confederate-made saddle. Rather, its manufacturing details suggest its quite likely a saddle purchased in the pre-war period by its CS officer owner from one of the large eastern commercial wholesalers. I go into a lot of depth on this aspect of the 19th century saddle industry in my book. Courtesy CW Collector/dealer Michael Siemans (I think Mr S. has more info on this saddle at his website.)
2. This is a pre-war Spanish saddle c. 1840's - 1850's - a quite common pattern of the period and also routinely taken into service by Confederate and Yankee soldiers in the early war period. The general pattern modified a bit in commercial sales after the war and wained in popularity but they continued to be offered in catalogs until about 1890. Private Collection.
3. Mexican War saddle of Col John Withers. Captured Mexican officer's saddle presented to him by his soldiers. It resides in the Mobile Ala Historical Museum.

Anyway, a few saddles to ponder....I have many more that I will periodically post for discussion.

Best Always,

Ken R Knopp

[rbruno]

Re: New saddles surfacing to ponder.....

Ken,
Thanks for posting pictures of the saddles. There is always a lot of conversation around the campfire about the civilian saddles and trees from the time period. Of course, it always gets to where do we get correct trees. One of the things that always comes up is the shape and more so the angle of the cantle on texas/horned saddles. Some will say that the lower angle is more correct for war time or prewar saddles. In the pictures you posted, clearly saddle #1 does not have nearly the angle of the latter. Do you think this is more the "style" of the Texas saddle vs the Spanish saddles? Are the majority of the Spanish types saddles have the steeper cantle angle? The Mexican saddle seems to have the steepest angle of the three. It is hare to judge when the saddles aren't side by side.

[Ken Knopp]

Re: New saddles surfacing to ponder.....

Hello Rob,

Some generalities: Unfortunately, the shape of the Texas, Spanish....or any other pre war horned saddles were never monolithic. Rather, each pattern had some continuing features that were more or less the same. These are generally noted in their horns and pommels (and a few other places) rather than the cantles. It also had only a little to do with their finish features. Low or high cantles in and of themselves where usually not a consistent measure of determining patterns. However, while pre war Texas saddles offered a variety of cantle shapes and angles Spanish saddles of the 1820's through 1860 were more fairly consistent.

Having said that....The Hope, which was a pre-cursor of the Texas had some of its own salient points including a wide (usually low) horn, mortice holes for stirrup straps and generally a low cantle. It was a quasi-military (militia....think Texas Rangers) saddle that became the Morgan after the war with almost the exact same saddle pattern. The Texas pattern was a decedent of the early "estradoita" saddles from Spain then northeastern Mexico vaquero saddles. Unfortunately, for the uninformed the term "Texas" for awhile became a catch-all for American horned saddles. The truth is the Texas varied greatly with particular styles emerging in the 1850's including the New Braunfels and the Yorktown Applehorn....but the upright pommel and as horn noted above was generally consistent. Another "general" consistency (again not monolithic) was that Texas saddles usually looped the stirrup straps through the tree bars. Further notes....Texas cantles varied greatly. Finish styles varied enormously. The Californio (1820's to 1840's) then California saddle of the 1850's was another story entirely. The adaption of Californio-a saddle features in the Cattle Drive Era and after (with lots of machinations) became what we know today as Stock saddles. It a bigger story with many twists, turns and very treacherous because the truth busts a lot of heretofore indelible, thoroughly ingrained "western cowboy" myths. I wade into this knowing full well I will soon become a very large target......myth busting in the CW cavalry world is but an annoyance as compared to the IED I am about to set off in the old culture cowboy genre.

In summary, it is simply impossible to encapsulate these saddle histories and pattern evolutions with any hope of leaving a solid understanding in the space allowed here. It is a very convoluted and overlapping story fraught with disagreement unless told in its entirety with documentation and photos. That is done with my project. However, I hope I provided some small elements of understanding today in my short reply.

I should note that the Mexican War saddle above (#3) was a captured Mexican saddle in the Vaquero style noted above that was reworked a bit for presentation to Col. Withers. It provides some of the elements of the Mexican Vaquero that were transitioned to the American Texas patterns. Yet another story....

Ken R Knopp

[rbruno]

Re: New saddles surfacing to ponder.....

Thanks Ken,
I know it is very hard to describe civilian saddles especially pre-war because there are so many varieties and so few survivors. My saddle seems to combine the pommel of first one you posted and the cantle of the last one. I am pretty sure my stirrup straps go through mortice holes in the bars. I have always just called it a horned civilian saddle. Great info as always.