146 THE WAR SADDLE 



pounds of armour makes a dead weight of 280 

 pounds. Add harness and horse armour, and 

 the total weight is about 400 pounds. At a 

 canter this load would certainly need a 

 draught horse weighing not less than 1,500 

 pounds. Using the Enghsh saddlery one 

 would prefer the heaviest draught animal. 



Now take a load of 350 pounds in mining 

 machinery and add 50 pounds for an apparejo 

 pack equipment. This total dead weight of 

 400 pounds would make a light cargo for a 

 1,000 pound mule or horse, who w^ould carry 

 it without distress a day's march up a range of 

 mountains. 



But note well that the bearing surface of the 

 equipment on the horse's back is about two 

 square feet with the English saddle, and nearly 

 eight square feet for the usual apparel of horses 

 in heavy packing. As anybody would rather 

 carr}^ two buckets of water than one, because 

 the load is halved by being properly dis- 

 tributed, so will the horse prefer a heavy load 

 distributed over the whole rigid area of the 

 ribs to a light load concentrated on a few square 

 inches. The distribution of the load is of 

 greater importance than its weight. 



In the days of light chain mail a special 

 saddle was evolved with a deep seat wherein 



