Martin & Martin

Thought I would do 2 posts today since I missed yesterday. Yesterday, I had to meet with the movers to take a lot of furniture out of my Father's home. It was a sad day for me.

The following 2 Martin and Martin sidesaddle photos were provided by Linda Flemmer from The Sidesaddlery. Please visit the ISSO web site at:
http://www.sidesaddle.com/reference_pages/saddletype.htm

Martin and Martin saddles were built in London, Philadelphia, and New York. Highly prized by show riders, these sidesaddles were one of the best hand made saddles available.


The most interesting and convenient feature of a Martin & Martin sidesaddle is the
offside flap, which has a spring loaded arm, sometimes called a 'garage door' to give access to the billets. This feature allowed the rider to make girth adjustments both without an assistant and without having to dismount. These saddles were constructed with either a safety bar or a roller bar system. Although this worked well for riders who fall off on the off side, it sometimes failed to release if the rider fell falling nearside. The stirrup fitting could remain lodged behind the locating pin.

This is an older Martin & Martin. Note the narrow pommels.

More modern Martin & Martin saddles weighed in at a light 23 pounds with fittings making it the lightest sidesaddle of it's time.

These next 2 photos are from Jeanne and this is what she told me about her Martin and Martin saddle:

This M&M has medium pommels, dual position leaping pommel, all leather saddle was used for fox hunting in the late 1940's and more recently on the Morgan show circuit. Has the M&M bullseye breakaway fitting and M&M "garage door" convenience feature.