anybody catch Pawn Stars last night ?

[Trailrider]

"A 12-inch seat is a child's saddle"?  Does that mean I can turn the clock back about 60 years and be nearly nine again? My riding 1903 Mac is a 12".

Just for the information of those who don't know about the sizes of Mac saddles, they were 11, 11-1/2 and 12", which corresponds to, what??? in civilian sizes about 15-16"?  The terminology was different for the MacClellan saddles, and probably the Jennifer and Grimsley ones too?  As to the rawhide seats, IIRC they were standard from the 1859 through the 1879. (You true experts out there, please correct me, as I can't get at my reference books just now.)  Don't know about during the War, but during the Indian Wars campaigns, some officers would have their saddler sergeants cover their saddles in tanned leather, even covering the opening in the center of the saddle. I don't claim to be an expert...far from it...but these so-called "experts" on these shows really need to bone up.

[Major 2]

At the lower joint of the Pommel & Cantle on your 04 the are two brass headed Saddle nails on each side.
Measure front to rear between these two centers, it will correspond to your Pommel shield marked 12" SEAT.
This is how a Mac was measured 12" being the largest and most common.

A Modern Western saddle is measured center of the pommel behind the horn to center of the cantle at the top
This will be 15" to 17" commonly.

All Mac's have rawhide covered seat, M74,M86, M04, and M28's were covered in Leather
The M59 had an exposed Rawhide seat with screwed on skirts...at the Cavalry Convene in 1869 and a leather cover saddle was
shown...It was not till 1873, before the M73 was ordered, but the 59 was still in use, some post saddlers covered saddle as the rawhide wore out or split.

Indeed, some officers had Leather covered Mac's .

Schuler, Hartley & Graham offered a Delux Fair Leather covered seat.

[St. George]

As an aside - a 'real' Cavalry Trooper of the era was a pretty small individual by today's standards - not the behemoths out there today that portray them in C&WAS.

They were small because that made it easier on their mount - as did the McClellan - and condition of their mounts were critical to their success.

The average size of an American soldier in WWI (the first time the Army was tabulated seriously) - was 5'6" and 156 Lbs - and those guys were born 'after' the heyday of mounted combat...

Vaya,

Scouts Out!