THE WAR SADDLE 145 



the conduct of horsemen. Horses were not 

 saddled in England until 631 a.d., and the first 

 pictures we have which reveal the horseman- 

 ship of the Middle Ages are the Bayeux 

 tapestries of the Norman Conquerors. Now for 

 the first time horses were used b}^ farmers to 

 till the land. Chain mail had replaced the 

 scale armour of the Barbarians. A perfectly 

 straight leg locked the horseman aft against 

 the cantle, forward against the stirrup of a 

 weight-distributing saddle. 



The War Saddle. During the live centu- 

 ries in which body armour slowly increased in 

 weight, and horse armour was added to the 

 burden, the dappled woodland horse of Northern 

 Europe was bred from strength to strength to 

 take the growing load. So we came by our 

 Destriers, now known as the cart horse breeds, 

 such as the Percheron, Cleveland Bay, and 

 Suffolk Punch, and the heav}^ draught such 

 as the Shire and Clydesdale. 



Plate armour is still worn a good deal on the 

 stage, in pageants and in military tourna- 

 ments. Men used to this armour tell me that a 

 horseman who rides less than his weight while 

 his limbs are free, rides more than his weight 

 when he is cramped in movement. 



Suppose then that a 190 pound man in 90 



