For mule or horse, they can't be beat for weight.
Hunting or mountain riding.
Original seats were generally 11 in, 11.5 and 12 inch.
The Army strapped saddle bags,rifles, farrier gear, canteens
etc on them. Most have no stock horns, but a few DID come that way. As Endurance rigs cannot be beat
for long horseback trips.
(I have 2 McClellans that I'm putting in classifieds-have a couple too many).

I have a few of them here. Very inexpensive in South Africa and all we need for our ranch ponies. Just ensure that they fit.
I hope to use them for my donkey and mule respectively when the time comes too.

Being a rancher, and cowboy most of my life I have no use for them as they were a one fits all and didn't fit many horses..Used them for pack saddles in my early days but our saddle makers made a better product..

Ray, a friend of mine who is of your vintage once told me he saw unissued McClellans still wrapped in preservative paper at Idaho feed stores when he was a kid. This would likely have been in the 1940s and 50s. Ring any bells?
I never learned to ride well and can understand the design falls well short for cow and rope work, but I have admired these for their roles in the Civil War and the Indian War period.
We had one on display at Oliver Lee State Park near the White Sands in New Mexico and as a volunteer I would point out to folks how the steep angle of the tree was designed to fit the rangy horses bought by the Army in the 1800s and early 1900s, and would not sit well at all on the nearly flat back of a modern quarter horse.

Horseback field trialers (American Field & some AKC - pointing dogs) traditionally use a McClellen or a derivation for working and competing.

Granted and our horses today are a different critter lighter in the withers and rounder iin the back, even throughbreads..Those old horses were tough as rawhide and on a bad track the got ate!!

Seen some come out of Mexico just like that and their bones are egg shaped, adds too their stamina.

Their is a place today for such a saddle and we did use them a bit back in my youth, but hay we used form fitting saddles that you were all but glued in, cinches were cotton roped, saddle blankets sewed together feed sacks.. and they all bucked every morning..Hard times during the great depression, I only got in on the last of it, but heard all the stories. WE switched to sawbucks at some point and the McClellans disapeared. I see one now and then at a gun show or farm auction, and not in great shape, but could be repaired easy enough as a rule. I wouldn't care to put 16 hours a day in one, prefering the cowboy custom made saddles of today.

Lot coming to auction here in Texas sell cheap

By cheap you mean ...?

200 to 300 pulse Commission

Chief, the last US Army cavalry horse, died at Fort Riley, KS, in 1968. Shortly thereafter, some surplus Army gear was sold at Ft. Riley, to include 10,000 McClellan saddles still in storage. A tongue-in-cheek Army Times headline read something like: "Chief died, 10,000 saddles discovered. The old horse was ridden to death!"

Bill I didn't move to Idaho until 1981, but Ive not seen a Mccallan since Ive been here I don't think..I see a lot of old sawbucks, but they too have lost flavor with most packers..I have one sawbuck in the barn, that's where it lives, Its a rare one as its small and was made for donkeys, I ought to sell it to some collector or for someone's den,,It was used back in the day to smuggle sotol into the USA and later to pack marijuana on burros into Texas from south of LaJitas, so it has some interesting history and thats another story! ..

Ah sotol — too bad so few even know it exists!

Actually sotol is a rather mild drug, not alcohol, something else most don't realize..You can buy it in Mexico in any liquor store or bar but can't bring it into the US under any conditions. Lots of ranchers that owned ranches on the Rio Grande used to buy it in quart jars off those smugglers. It would show up at dances in Marathon, Alpine, Sanderson and in plain sight, the law was simply not enforced I guess. This was back in the day coming out of the great depression..HIstory lesson 101!

PS: I doubt that its enforced today, Never heard of anyne being arrested for it down in Texas!!
It tastes a lot like Kerosene and probably horse piss mix.

Ray, Kelly's Liquors in Las Cruces, New Mexico, had nearly a dozen sotols to choose from. I thought the stuff I bought was better than any tequila by a long mile. Maybe we are talking about two different things.
When I asked if they had any at a liquor store here in Sweetwater, TX, the Hispanic guy behind the counter got a blank look and said "Never heard of it."

Here in San Angelo, Nils Pascuzzi makes older period saddles and many are McClellan. He makes a lot for Texas A&M and just last week Ft Sill picked up ten that he made. Bill, if you are here from Sweetwater I could take you to his shop. He and I go back to the 80's when we were both active duty Air Force.

Thanks for that offer, Carpetman.

Older saddles are like older posts.

My best McCllelan was re-leathered by the saddlery
at Ft. Meyer, VA. next to Arlington National
Cemetery. The Old Guard still uses and maintains them. They are made for the comfort of the horse, NOT the rider.
Most Western saddles are cheap, poorly designed
disasters to both horse and rider. Ray was right-you need a custom made rig like used to be made in Denver or El Paso Saddlery.

But having no cattle stock, I use a Mc Clellan-
named after the Civil War General who developed them. Tougher than mule shoe nails. I have ridden into Mexico on one near Naco, AZ. in the 1980s. Morgan horse- Good ride - carried a 44 pistol and canteen. My Border Patrol mates were looking after me on this side. Brought some mescal back-prefer good tequila any day.

Or an S.D. Myres, as made until 1920 right here in Sweetwater, Texas, where S.D. served on the school board, and as mayor. After the fire (and a new love interest) he left the Rolling Plains for El Paso.

i ride in a saddle that is a spin off of the mclellan. pandora saddle out of australia, made of carbon fiber, can ride a day in it and not be sore, hop off and ready to go again

Well I'll be darned. They sure are a descendent of the McClellan!

http://pandorasaddles.com/

Spent 9 hours on my best McCLellan above the Mexican border with a good double blanket. The
US Border Patrol used them a lot. The original wooden trees wore like iron-veru tough. Modern McC
trees are fiberglass.

My saddles have outlasted about 5 or 6 good horses.
They work best for Arabians and Morgans-not so much for pure quarter horse stock, unless they are cross bred with tougher blood for endurance.

Traditional Calvary horses were alive and well in Afghanistan, used by special forces folks. Employed in a raider format small team stuff.

The Army still has some places that have horses, mostly as part of an MWR program. But Huachucha and a couple other bases have horses.

I never went by the stables at Fort Bliss, I don't know if they have a horse program or not.

First Calv has 7 operational horse ceremonial detachments.

You are correct. I am one of those Special Forces folks, all the way back to Vietnam.

Ft. Huachuca has B Troop, a US Cavalry re-enactment bunch with horses and about 20 McCllelan saddles still left and maintained in Apache country.

Slender horses that grow thinner on patrol, and thats why the middle slit never hurt the horse's back getting poor on the trail.