cavalry saddle

4x4junkie

4x4junkie

Regular
EE Expired
Rating - 100%
4   0   0
Location
AB
There may or may not be a lot of these kicking around. I have a WW1 cavalry saddle and I'm looking for some suggestions on where to research these. Never thought of trying to look up the history of it before. It is a keepsake my grampa gave me 35+ yrs ago. It is well used I have pics of my dad using it when he was a kid. Don't know where he got it from. Hope someone can point me in the right direction. Hope this is the right spot to post this.
Thanks
4x4


P.S. I've never really searched for anything before so be patient I may have a lot of questions!
 
Only thing I know about these things is that there used to be some of them around, about 50 years ago. They were an excellent saddle for their purpose, but the Western-type of saddle is what people around here seem to use.

Our Army had regular Cavalry training and summer Militia camps for Cavalry regiments up until at least shortly before WW2. I knew a man who attended cavalry camp at Camp Hughes in 1936. That camp still exists, BTW, preserved as a sort of park although things are marked out and you can still see the old horse lines. It is just South of Number 1 Highway, out in the sand hills by Carberry, Manitoba. It was a Cavalry training base during the Great War.

That would make a lot of sense, being that the Army only had TWO (2) Tanks at the outbreak of the Second War. Saddles seem to have been sold off some time in the late 1950s or early 1960s.

Look for regimental markings on your saddle. Something like SALH would indicate South Alberta Light Horse, 20 BH would be 20th Border Horse (around here): like that. There are complete listings of EVERY Regiment or marking in Canadian history.

Nice thing is that they were good leather and there are still a few Saddlers willing to work on them.

IIRC these would have been the Pattern of 1908, but don't quote me on that, fergawdssakes.

Sorry I can't help farther.
 
There's even a possibility that this might be a US Army surplus McClelland saddle. It was produced in huge numbers and many were sold off as surplus. We even had one on the farm when I was a kid. Look for markings and stampings to help ID it. A very distinctive feature of the McClelland saddle is the long cutout in the middle of the seat.
 
purple said:
There's even a possibility that this might be a US Army surplus McClelland saddle. It was produced in huge numbers and many were sold off as surplus. We even had one on the farm when I was a kid. Look for markings and stampings to help ID it. A very distinctive feature of the McClelland saddle is the long cutout in the middle of the seat.
Click to expand...

Fairly common and not worth that much. A lot of them were converted to pack saddles in their afterlife. Sems all of the saddle bags you see in Western movies were surplus made to fit the Mc Clellan saddle. You can tell by the eyelets by which they clipped on the saddle and the US stamp.

Grizz

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McClellan_saddle
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom