Mexican McClellans

[Todd]

Does anyone have a decent specimen of this interesting McClellan variation? Here is a poor photo of two rough examples - they are a kind of melding of M1904 rigging with a skirt and flap, and a reduced pommel profile.

mex_mcclellans.jpg (64.29 KiB) Viewed 5233 times

For better view of these, just watch the first twenty minutes or so of Sam Peckinpah's "The Wild Bunch" - while in disguise as cavalrymen, all of 'the Bunch' are riding Mexican cavalry saddles.

The primary McClellan weakness was the tendency of the pommels to break, so I wonder if there weren't more substantial metal reinforcements in these examples. It looks like the wood was taken down to the top of the metal arch supports and then covered - good idea, if the breakage issue was addressed too.

[Pat Holscher]

For better view of these, just watch the first twenty minutes or so of Sam Peckinpah's "The Wild Bunch" - while in disguise as cavalrymen, all of 'the Bunch' are riding Mexican cavalry saddles.

Wow, I've watched that move a bunch of times and never caught that detail!

[Joseph Sullivan]

I have one, but a guy i gave it to for repairs decided to replace the straps and did not do a sensitive job.

[tmarsh]

Does anybody know what model this is? It had the English flap but retained the quarter straps. Would they have had a 1904 model? Anybody know anything about Mexican military saddles? Are the stirrups on your saddle original Joe?

[Joseph Sullivan]

It isn't an American M1904, and it doesn't use an American tree . The tree is obviously derived from the McClellan, but with differences. The pommel in particular is different (I am going from memory as mine is buried under a lot of stuff), and the quarter strap rigging is different as are, if memory serves, the stirrup hangers. Seems to me that the jockeys are necessary in order to ride with any comfort.

One of the signal differences that can be spotted at a distance is that the saddle nail is brass and is the size of a US quarter coin. If yo see that and the jockeys, it is Mexican. I do have the original stirrups. they are somewhat crudely cast brass, roughly shaped like our 1912 artillery stirrups.

At one point about 30 to 35 years ago there were any number of these available in the US. Lots of them including mine still had metal unit tags. I have never learned whether they had been stolen and sold across the border, or whether the Mexican Army downsized its horse operations and sold them as surplus. Either explanation is plausible.

[Todd]

Here's one that has popped up on eBay - haven't seen one here in quite awhile.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/252161303421

[Joseph Sullivan]

Indeed so. Decent pix of all the features I mentioned. Most have now faded to about that shade of brown now, too. Mine has; I have no idea why. It has had NO use or exposure since it was black.

[Todd]

Just ran across a reference in a 1914 trade pub that mentions a contract with SC Gallup for 1500 sets of cavalry equipment for Mexican cavalry, total value of 45,000 dollars.

The unit price of $30/set was about correct for standard mcclellan saddle about that time. It would be interesting to know what this looked like.

I'm really stumped for info on mexican issue equipment, there's just nothing out there...