224 RIDING 



the work of some inferior writer, who, at a period long after the 

 building of the Theodosian column, took the name Vegetins 

 because it had been rendered famous by the author of treatises 

 upon military affairs. 



But while there is no evidence that is sufficiently strong to 

 support the belief in the existence of the saddle-tree for riding 

 before the early part of the fifth century before our era, it seems 

 then to have bloomed forth with such completeness that it is 

 possible, as I have said, that it was the outgrowth of a similar 

 frame work which had long been in use for holding packs upon 

 beasts of burthen. 



It is impossible to follow the different forms of the saddle- 

 tree ; for while the high pummel and cantel are still in use in 

 some military services, I find, on reference to the drawings, that 

 between the eleventh and the seventeenth centuries the pummel 

 is sometimes found reduced to almost the size of the present 

 hunting tree ; and again the cantel is shorn of its proportions, 

 while the bow is exaggerated. In a portrait of the race-horse 

 ' Old Partner ' (foaled in 171 8), painted by Seymour, the tree 

 is represented like that we now use for race-riding. From a 

 picture by Cooper, and from Adams' remarks in his work on 

 Equitation (1805), I think that the two flaps (or the skirt over 

 the flap) were introduced in the latter part of the eighteenth 

 century. 



THE AGE OF ARMOUR-THE STIRRUP 



Although it was not until after the time of Charlemagne that 

 suits of complete armour were worn, 1 yet long before that era 

 the arms and equipments of the knights had become so cum- 

 brous that vaulting into the saddle, even with the aid of the 

 lance, must have become a difficult if not an impossible feat. 2 

 The scala, to assist the rider in reaching the saddle, was the 



1 Boutell. Arms and Armour, pp. 96, 97. 



2 The ordinary ' panoply ' of the ancients was, according to Plutarch, 

 seventy pounds in weight, consisting of the greaves, cuirass, sword, shield, 

 helmet, and spear. The horse soldiers were more lightly armed. 



