SPANISH, HALF SPANISH AND EAGLE HEAD SADDLES

THE SPANISH SADDLE:

        Generally, saddles made in America did not have horns as we understand them today until about 1820 when they were adopted from the Spanish/Mexican saddle. While few Americans knew of such a saddle before that time, in less than twenty years nearly every contemporary American would have been able to identify a Spanish saddle. Until about 1850, Americans generally referred to horned saddles as “Spanish” saddles suggesting their acute awareness of its place of origin. Their emergence into broad acceptance was greatly facilitated by the success of St. Louis saddle makers including Thornton Grimsley, who may have originated the St. Louis pattern Spanish saddle sometime about 1820.¹

    The Mississippi Valley and St. Louis in particular experienced a huge influx of Americans following the Louisiana Purchase. Many of them following the fur trade west or northwest from St Louis and many needing saddles for their journey. Being an entrepreneur and visionary Grimsley recognized the opportunities in both St. Louis as the Gateway to the West, and in the Spanish saddle. His early contracts with the American Fur Company in the mid-1820’s sent hundreds of his Spanish saddles west up the Missouri River and beyond. Later contracts with the U.S. Army did still more to broaden their exposure. By the time of the Civil War, thousands of Spanish saddles were being sold by perhaps hundreds of different makers around the country from St. Louis to Natchez and New Orleans and in the north from Philadelphia to Newark, Hartford, New York, Cincinnati and elsewhere.²       

    The finish of the early Spanish saddles could vary from plain to elaborate. However, in general the common appearance of Grimsley’s early Spanish saddles as now understood, is fairly easy to document. It apparently came in several alternatives depending upon price and components. Saddles sold to the fur trade used trees, according to Grimsley that were, “a complete moddle (sp) of the much admired spannish (sp) saddle”. Borrowing heavily from Spanish influences, it had four piece wood construction, an upright fork and horn, high cantles with the entirety completely rawhide covered. Trained in English saddler methods Grimsley gave them a distinctive English/American look with long tapered skirts, a variable soft leather, wool-stuffed seat pad and, under padding. The whole, apparently covered with a large mochila (Grimsley spelled it as “Schabbrak” for Shabraque) through which holes for the horn and stirrup leathers were cut.      

     As fashionable styles evolved, wide variations of this saddle could be purchased from other makers as well. Mochila’s became optional including the choice of a skeleton rigged saddle without the mochila but skirted like an English saddle or with other options available such as under padding, saddle cloth, surcingle and crupper. In the field, fur traders often used a blanket, buffalo or bear skin hide variably called an “epishamore” (“pishmore”etc.) over the saddle as a seat pad with a leather (or colorful cotton rolled web, hemp or worsted wool) strap as a surcingle and, often-another hair skin under the saddle as a saddle blanket. Additional colorful saddlecloths of blue, buff, spotted, brown with cloth trimmings were available and common under the saddle but placed over the saddle blanket. The use of cruppers was very common too. Rigging was English style, but apparently (Spanish) center-fire position with cinches made of cotton web, leather or wool. Stirrups employed on these saddles when new were universally “stirrup irons” indicating metal stirrups but of unknown patterns. Variations of block or bent wood stirrups at the time were the mark of Mexican influenced alterations.³ 

     In the early days, certain tree styles were popular but each maker had his own methods and sources for these hand-made trees. It is unlikely any two were identical. Yet it is also clear they were not faithful to their original Mexican counterparts particularly in the shape of the tree fork and horn. Moreover, the tree evolved. In early models, the front bars usually extended beyond the fork. Notably, they did beyond the rear of the cantle as well if only an inch or two. Variations ranged widely depending upon the region, maker and time period. As noted in previous chapters, the shape of the fork and horn presents the most diversity. In general, the slope of the fork on the St. Louis Spanish saddle was originally quite upright with short neck and small, flat horn caps. By the 1850’s this look as a standard was fading. Forks, horns and bars now varied a bit more. Cantles varied somewhat in slope too but remained high as compared to the flat saddle and were sometimes quite steep. Finish variations abounded. In general, all tree patterns and finish styles were merging in the 1850’s, which can clearly be seen in the T. Smith catalog.⁴

THE HALF SPANISH (HALF AMERICAN) SADDLE:

     About the late 1820’s to early 1830’s Grimsley, other St. Louis saddle makers or perhaps an eastern maker developed the hybrid “Half-Spanish” saddle probably as a marketing ploy to appeal to those uninitiated or unfavorable to the utilitarian and heavier Spanish saddle. Coincidently, the Half Spanish saddle bears a striking resemblance to 19^th century “Jineta” pattern Turkish saddles of the Ottoman Empire- particularly in its pommel and horn construction. Perhaps its inventors “borrowed” the significantly Spanish aspect of their creation directly from the “Jineta” pattern saddle in Mexico. We don’t know exactly how the Half Spanish originated but their likeness is a bit remarkable. It is also notable, that some eastern saddle manufacturers quickly became rather adept at making very fine variations of the Half Spanish saddle often with fanciful quilted seats and other features.   

 

                                

     The half “Jineta” Spanish and half “American” saddle was a hybrid built on an Americanized English tree yet with features distinctly different from common English, American or Spanish tree. First, it generally sported a high cantle like the American. Under the surface, the tree was either typically English or, had quasi bars similar to the Spanish but notably without the distinctively Spanish front and rear bar extensions protruding in front of the pommel and beyond the cantle. As in English tree tradition it was rarely if ever covered in rawhide.

     Second, its narrow English style pommel was prominently topped with a high but gently tapered, more refined horn than that typically found on the Spanish saddle. Most significantly, it lacked the distinctive front extension at the base of the horn as found on the Spanish tree. When finished, the Half Spanish usually bore long tapered skirts, a comfortable, quilted and padded seat and, under padding in the American tradition; all characteristics well known and appreciated in the east.

        Nevertheless, the Half Spanish saddle found its niche. Perhaps even more so than the St. Louis version of the Spanish Saddle, the Half Spanish (and to a great degree the Attakapas) found an appealing middle position between the English style American and horned Mexican Vaquero saddles. Truly brilliant in its construction it found its greatest appeal as a saddle for the upper classes.⁵

          By the 1830’s a variety of Half-Spanish saddles and accoutrements were common in the Mississippi valley and emerging around the rest of the country. The poorer class rode their mules or horses with plain, utilitarian saddlery or none at all. However, in general, fashionable Southern gentlemen and the Planter class along the Mississippi from Natchez to New Orleans often preferred the Half Spanish saddle (sometimes referred to as “Columbian” saddles when made by the larger Northeastern wholesalers) over the Spanish or the Attakapas saddles which were considered by them as coarse or “common”.

      For some in the Southern aristocracy these elegant “demi-piqued”, Half Spanish saddles were quite appealing. In the lower Mississippi Valley, they were often gaily adorned with saddle cloths or complete over-coverings (Shabraques) of red, blue or light blue trimmed in gold lace, or cloths of deer or bear skins, hair side up and also trimmed. Others simply covered the saddle in neatly folded red or blue blankets held on with an equally bright surcingle. Their female counterparts rode sidesaddles also emboldened in color and elegance. Numerous descriptions are found of gentlemen riders going about their business in town or, large parties of revelers colorfully dressed making their way to the theater, church or other social functions yet all expertly riding these saddles with an ease and carelessness that elicited admiration by all who saw them.⁶

 

EAGLE HEAD HALF-SPANISH SADDLES:

     Eagle head saddles appear about the late 1830’s perhaps a bit earlier. Their origins and purpose are not exactly clear. Certainly, they were not government military issue. More likely, they were a manifestation of martial fashion in the popular trend of patriotic but private purchase saddlery for officers of the American army or militia of that period. Early collectors note that many seem to originate in Philadelphia and New York suggesting some connection to saddler’s in those regions and interestingly, coinciding with the time Grimsley lost his military contracts with the army in 1836. They were clearly not substantial enough for hard “field” use- probably made for general riding by officer’s as garrison or parade ground saddles. The brass Eagle motif horn cap is almost always mounted on Half Spanish saddles with many of the surviving samples showing a fine, quilt stitched, calf skin leather padded seat pad and tapered black skirts although other embellishments often appear too. The cast brass eagle heads reveal at least three different variations. They have been known to be excavated from Civil War sites indicating some use in that war but as a saddle pattern the Half Spanish Eagle Head had largely fallen out of favor by that time. Interestingly, a box of old single brass eagle head castings were purchased by a collector from Bannerman’s Military Surplus in the 1950’s suggesting the castings were available to early saddler’s from which to use in their saddle orders or as decorative pieces.⁷

       It should be noted that collectors occasionally identify some saddles as a “Mock-eagle saddle” in reference to slender, gracefully tapered leather-covered wood horns found on similarly made saddles. This is a misnomer in both identification and terminology. All Eagle Head saddles seen by this author were made upon Half Spanish saddletrees most often with the representative padded, quilted seats. Other horned saddles of the same genre found without the brass eagle heads are nothing more than either a Spanish or Half Spanish saddle.⁸

THE SPANISH & HALF SPANISH SADDLE LEGACY:

       Both the Spanish and Half Spanish saddles were wildly successful. From the outset, other saddlers adopted the patterns with places like New Orleans, Memphis and other towns along the Mississippi River quickly becoming hubs of saddle making or sales. Over the next twenty-five years thousands of these saddles were being ridden far across the Mississippi, up the Missouri, to Oregon, southwest to Santé Fe, California and often, back again. By the 1830’s they were also being made in large numbers by the major manufacturing houses in Philadelphia, New York, New Jersey and Hartford then sold through their various distribution outlets. The Spanish and Half Spanish saddles remained highly popular from the 1820’s to the beginning of the Civil War. They evolved though gradually fading from favor yet were still occasionally found in commercial catalogs as late as the 1890’s. In summary, both Spanish saddle patterns were an innovative and instrumental early step in popularizing what eventually developed into the western (cowboy) saddles of our modern era.⁹