If all you’re going to do is flat work then a Mac might work if it fits YOU. But the Mac was designed for small framed men, circa the 19th Century. I’ve NEVER found it comfortable. Originals are particularly problematical as they have the narrow trees of the time and will sore up a back in short order if they are not fitted correctly. They were designed to put the rider into a forked, chair seat. For anything other than flat work they are at best marginally suitable. The Army tried as early as the md-1880s to retire the Mac as they knew of it’s shortcomings. They did some testing and decided a Whitman design would work well and the proposal was on it’s way to acceptance until it got to the desk of the Chief of Staff in those days, one William Tecumseh Sherman. He declined to make the switch because at that time the Army had tens of thousands of Mac trees in warehouses left over from the ACW.
They tried again in 1912 with the Experimental saddles for both Officers and Troopers. They were characterized by an attempt at a “flexible” tree. The design failed as it was not robust enough for field work.
There were additional trials being conducted post 1912 but by the time a few were starting to emerge as possibles the Army saw WWI on the horizon and decided not to try and change saddles just before a major conflict. So when the U.S. went to war in 1917 the '04 Mac went, too. During the War over 900,000 Macs were produced. It stayed in service until 1948.
G.
But it wasn’t unpleasant. The Whitman was less “structured” but still quite comfortable.
