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SADDLES 



EARLY SADDLE 



or the public horse-blocks which stood at intervals 

 in every street lent the necessary aid ; sometimes 

 the horse was taught to kneel in order to receive 



his rider. There is no 

 evidence to show that 

 any form of stirrup 

 came into use before the 

 reign of the Emperor 

 Maurice (a.d. 602). It 

 has been conjectured 

 that the idea of the 

 stirrup originated in the 

 use of a rope ladder 

 which was thrown over 

 the horse to enable the rider to mount ; and when 

 a stiffer structure replaced the pad this ladder 

 was fixed thereto to support the rider's feet, and 

 gradually changed its form into a pair of attach- 

 ments whose primary use was to rest the legs. 



The gradual development of the Ephippium 

 may be traced on existing specimens of Roman 

 architecture. The pad becomes thicker and the 

 trappings much more gorgeous as years roll on, 

 until an equestrian statue of M. Aurelius shows us 

 a comfortable saddle-cloth, filling up the hollows 

 in the horse's back. On the Theodosian Column, 

 in the figures of Theodosius and Gratian, we meet 

 with the true saddle for the first time ; these have 

 a distinct bow in front and behind. Undoubtedly, 

 about this period, as if to emphasise a recent dis- 

 covery, a new Latin phrase was coined for a 

 saddle, namely, sella equestris. 



It would, perhaps, be convenient to give a 



