Yonatan

Nice job!

www.confederatesaddles.com Examples of Confederate "Texas Saddles": Below, Texas saddle found at the site of the Battle of Perryville, Kentucky: General Johnston's Texas saddle: General John Hunt Morgan's Texas Saddle, Kentucky Confederate Cavalry

Beautiful and great find, Harrison. Thanks very much for posting it. My first guess is that it's a Confederate "Texas Saddle", in use by rebel forces west of the Mississippi. Similar to the Hope saddle. Most people don't know this, but Southern California broke with Northern California, and joined the Confederacy. About the time the war broke out, Los Angeles sent mounted forces to Texas, where the Los Angeles forces met with their Texan brethren, and together they rode to Virginia to meet up with General Robert E. Lee, who made the leader of the Los Angeles mounted forces a general. So it's not unlikely that some California and Texas saddles are still hidden in some old barns over there in Virginia. I'll be very interested to see what others have to say about this fine old rig. I could be wrong about my guess. I'm posting this without reviewing any history books or saddle references. JD

Here are a few more examples of modified McClellans from Latin America. These two are from Costa Rica:

Mighty fine work, Brent.. EXTRA fine.. JD

Oops!! That should have been "cantle"

David, it might have been a Jenny, sure. Either it was a McClellan with the fork raised to a sharper point, or a Jenny with the cantel modified. One way or another. And, BTW, they do make their own McClellan trees down there. And, like I said, they sure are fond of tinkering with them .. JD

No, Pella. I don't live in South America. I just happen to know about their differnt types of saddles. I own a lot of traditional McClellan saddles too, so I've taken an interest in the various ways in which they've been modified here and there.

Here's an example of a Colombian "tereque" saddle. Of course, it's a much new model. And they just LOVE to keep tinkering with them every season.. So it's hard to find a brand new model identical to that old "Iberian" saddle you posted up above. But if I had the time, I bet I could dig up a shot of one just like yours, from years ago.

Pella, I posted my thoughts about your saddle on the "Vintage Saddle" thread, by mistake--I was reading both threads. So I'll repeat myself here and say once again, that I think your saddle is South American, probably Colombian, built on a modified McClellan tree. Compare the details to other modified McClellans used in northern South America and Central America. You can see that the riggin style is identical to most Colombian saddles too. The fork on your saddle comes to a higher, sharper point on top. But strip off the leather in your mind's eye, and I think you'll easily be able to picture a basic McClellan tree, again, with some modifications. Compare the style of border stamping with Colombian saddles, and I think you'll see the similarity there as well. JD

Pella, I'd say CurbStrap 2 is right--it's a South American saddle, probably from Colombia from the details and looks of it.. They ride modified McClellans down there. And that's the riggin they use too. JD

Association saddles, and modified association saddles, refer to the exact model saddle tree they are built on. There are association trees, and modified association trees. If I'm not mistaken, the name "association" comes from the rodeo association that designates this particular tree as the standard for rodeo events. There are alot of people here with strong rodeo backgrounds who are far more capable of answering your question than I am. They can explain the specifics regarding the association tree's fork dimensions, and what makes it perform the way it does, what makes it functionally unique.

Classic. Clean balanced lines. Well executed in every way.

Thanks for sharing the 3B with us, Steve. It's a beauty. Do you find there's uniformity among the various tree sources you have for those Visalia 3bs? The fork on this one looks really true, correct, classic. I hate to bother you, but if it's not too much trouble could you post a shot of a bare naked 3B tree that you consider absolutely true to the original Visalia specs? That would be mighty helpful to me, and maybe for others too. Thanks again. Your work is outstanding. That old time California feel comes through real strong.

Real nice work. Nice round skirts. Nice carving. Nice everything. I'd like to see some of your 3Bs too.