Please note: This complete chapter with multiple color photos can be found in my book: AMERICAN RIDING & WORK SADDLES (and Horse Culture), 1790-1920.
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As has been noted in previous chapters, the California saddles found in the late 1840’s through the mid-1860’s were descendant representations of the aesthetic and utilitarian qualities of the early Spanish/Mexican “Californio” saddles of the far west. Yet there were other styles and variations of California riding saddles with Mexican “Estradiota” origins being embraced by the immigrating Anglos as well.
The characteristic California saddle emerging from the 1840’s was distinctive by its variable flat or angled horn, a low oval cantle, unique wood stirrups and their fine, Mexican influenced tooled leather mochilas. The removable mochila is the most conspicuous part of the California Saddle. Cut square (or round) and left plain or tooled and embellished in accordance with the taste or pocket book of the owner, it had a hole in the front for the horn to come through and, a long slit behind for the cantle. Some were of one single piece of leather and others made of two pieces, often finely sewn or braided together down the middle with leather or rawhide. Placed over the entire saddle it was intended for the rider to sit upon while mounted and removed for cleaning or for the traveler to sleep upon at night. By the nature of the Mexican riding style the saddle rigging was “center-fire” and it used long leather latigos, rings and a “Mexican tie knot “to cinch the saddle tight. It also looped the wide one-piece stirrup straps through the split between the two bars and included carved wooden block stirrups or steam bent wood stirrups with variable decorative taparderos in the Californio tradition.1
For arduous, cross-country travel the pre-Civil War California came highly recommended by seasoned overland travel veterans such as Captain Randolf B. Marcy in his 1859 guidebook “The Prairie Traveler”, and British born naturalist, trapper and world-wide adventurer John K. Lord. Both preferred the California Saddle above all others. Writing in 1867 Lord left us another excellent overall description as presented above yet detailing it a bit further; “the knob of the pommel and the edge of the cantle are bound with leather but the other parts of the frame have nothing fastened to them except the “synch” straps and stirrup leathers.” Components such as rigging straps, girth straps, stirrup leathers, mochila, etc. fasten together, “…not by sewing with a needle and thread but with strips of rawhide which are firmly and securely tied…. there is no sewing, no buckles, no lining or fixed panels as saddler’s style it.” He notes the single girth was made of horsehair, woven flat, “10 inches wide and 2 feet, 6 inches to 3 feet in length; at each end, a strong iron ring not less than two inches in diameter.”2
The above represents a broad, simplistic description of the pre-Civil War, general-purpose California riding saddle of the 1850’s. Yet, to be sure, not all saddles in California were monolithic and not all employed mochilas or other traditional Mexican features. There were many varieties of popular but broadly defined saddletrees and finishes in California during this period from simple skeleton patterns to elaborately tooled and decoratively finished saddles.
By 1860, the bulky mochilas and heavy stirrups were fading from favor. For the remainder of the 19th century the California Saddle maintained its traditional identity and popularity in other aesthetic ways but its most significant influence was on the cattle working saddles that emerged all over the west in the post war cattle drive era.
CALIFORNIA COW COUNTRY SADDLES (1845 – 1870’s):
In the Alto California ranchero country prior to 1845 the traditional “Californio” Vaquero saddle reigned supreme. From at least as early as 1845 to the Civil War, illustrations and photos suggest other saddletrees some with longer bars and a narrower horn neck were popular but their origins and significant construction differences are vague until about 1860 when common trees designed specifically for the working cattle trade became known. These trees, including Freiske and Lehman styles dominated until the 1870’s when other celebrated patterns developed including the new Ledesma, Taylor and Visalia tree patterns rather quickly took on a life all their own and permeated across the American west. In the post war era, the California saddle’s many stylish features were captivating; moreover, the new trees were extremely advantageous. Perhaps it’s not surprisingly then that their influence extended to the cattle working saddles on the eastern slope of the Rockies and onto the Plains in the 1870’s as well as to the north into the cow country of Oregon, Montana, Wyoming and the saddlery that emerging in the 1870’s to 1900. (See Chapter 7-XV, The American Western Stock Saddle, Origins Development and Legacy).3
NOTES ABOUT POST WAR CALIFORNIA SADDLES: In California, as in the entire far west, the California saddle styles built a fine reputation and culture that lasted throughout the 19th century, but not so in the east. While these designs were beginning to emerge back east prior to the Civil War their identities appear to have been dislocated there after the war by other horned patterns. The plains cattlemen’s saddles co-opted their features but with limited acknowledgment after the initial years. During the post war commercial expansion era of the 1870’s – 1900, the eastern wholesale saddle makers rarely included “California” saddles of any kind in their catalogs favoring instead the Texas or Morgan saddles and eventually, stock saddles. Those that are found in eastern catalogs are still differentiated from the other saddles by characterizations of their horns, tree configurations and Spanish influenced decorative embellishments sometimes even taking on the Mexican “Charro” look but they were never given much exposure.4
Like so many other once-prevalent saddle patterns, by the 1920’s the California saddle in name recognition or as a separate identity was totally obscured by other horned saddles. Today, their features survive on many modern western saddles most notably in the horn, cantle, bars, some optional leather features and occasionally the skirts but acknowledgement of their lineage to the original California Saddle is often forgotten.
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