diff --git a/botocore/exceptions.py b/botocore/exceptions.py
index e807dec7b1..a1f4fa256b 100644
--- a/botocore/exceptions.py
+++ b/botocore/exceptions.py
@@ -77,7 +77,7 @@ class EndpointConnectionError(HTTPClientError):
     fmt = 'Could not connect to the endpoint URL: "{endpoint_url}"'
 
 
-class SSLError(ConnectionError):
+class SSLError(ConnectionError, requests.exceptions.SSLError):
     fmt = 'SSL validation failed for {endpoint_url} {error}'
 
 
diff --git a/tests/unit/test_http_client_exception_mapping.py b/tests/unit/test_http_client_exception_mapping.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..9eee38c46b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/unit/test_http_client_exception_mapping.py
@@ -0,0 +1,27 @@
+from nose.tools import assert_raises
+
+from botocore import exceptions as botocore_exceptions
+from botocore.vendored.requests import exceptions as requests_exceptions
+from botocore.vendored.requests.packages.urllib3 import exceptions as urllib3_exceptions
+
+EXCEPTION_MAPPING = [
+    (botocore_exceptions.ReadTimeoutError, requests_exceptions.ReadTimeout),
+    (botocore_exceptions.ReadTimeoutError, urllib3_exceptions.ReadTimeoutError),
+    (botocore_exceptions.ConnectTimeoutError, requests_exceptions.ConnectTimeout),
+    (botocore_exceptions.ProxyConnectionError, requests_exceptions.ProxyError),
+    (botocore_exceptions.SSLError, requests_exceptions.SSLError),
+]
+
+
+def _raise_exception(exception):
+    raise exception(endpoint_url=None, proxy_url=None, error=None)
+
+
+def _test_exception_mapping(new_exception, old_exception):
+    # assert that the new exception can still be caught by the old vendored one
+    assert_raises(old_exception, _raise_exception, new_exception)
+
+
+def test_http_client_exception_mapping():
+    for new_exception, old_exception in EXCEPTION_MAPPING:
+        yield _test_exception_mapping, new_exception, old_exception