Jeff and I had been there once before and had been wanting to go back. The entire museum is made up of one man's collection - only PART of his collection, actually. He was there this time and we all got to talk to him. It turned out that the museum was actually closed for the off season (as most things are around here), but he was there doing some work so he let us in and wandered around with us for a private tour. It was really cool. I had remembered that there were at least a couple of old saddles there, so I went in this time armed with the camera.
The first horse-related object you come to on the tour is this McClellan saddle.
I asked the owner about it and he told me it is a 1918 artillery saddle.
It was hard to get pictures of it in the glass case and from only one side...
... but I still took a bunch of pictures!
Underneath the saddle is what looks to be a cinch. I was thinking it's made of mohair possibly, but I'm not sure and I didn't think to ask. It seemed short to me, but then again, the rigging on a McClellan does hang down a ways I suppose.
I tried to get some of the details in the saddle, the back...
... and the front.
Along with some interesting stuff, like this plate:
The next sighting of something horse-related is this picture:
"British soldiers loading a pack horse for a wiring party near Pilkem in Flanders." |
Nearby is this picture:
"Prussian Uhlan (Cavalry) NCO" "The NCO carries a Model 1890 stahlrohrlanze (lance) with furled pennant and has a Kar 98a carbine on his back." |
Along with that picture are hanging an actual Uhlan pennant and lance...
...with this documentation: pennant
and lance.
In Part Two, I'll share some of the MANY pictures I took of the three WWII German Cavalry saddles at the museum.