Medieval Saddle Making for History Seminar

Why A Saddle?

Being a historian I find interest in many old “things” but being a historian who is an avid horseback rider, I have an extreme interest in horses and their use in historic times. Having to come up with a project idea for the History Seminar wasn’t hard at all; my mind quickly came up with the idea to recreate medieval horse tack. Tack is the equipment that goes on a horse when riding, such as a saddle, bridle, halters, breast plates, and so on. The piece of equipment I specifically wanted to recreate was the saddle because it is completely different from todays English and Western style saddles.

Historical Background and Importance

I think most people never really consider the importance of animals or the roles they played in history. Without horses people wouldn’t have been able to plow their fields or work their farms efficiently and they wouldn’t have been able to travel as greatly. Horses back then were the cars we have now. They kept society functioning back then because without them, life would have been ten times harder.

So why the Medieval time period? Besides my personal interest in the time period, My aunt’s horse business inspired me for this project. Her business is solely focused on breeding and showing Friesians, a beautiful medieval horse breed, and the medieval tack that would have been worn. She has beautiful pieces of armor made specifically to fit her horses along with a full knights armor and costumes for herself to wear while riding, it’s quite magical honestly. Having been around my aunt and her horses, it installed a love and appreciation of the medieval times.

Saddles from the medieval time period however were uniquely shaped in order to keep knights in the saddle while fighting at war or jousting. Both the cantle of the saddle and the pommel were raised high, supposedly securing the rider on his horse. I have no idea if this truly worked or not but it did make getting on the horse and in the saddle quite difficult.

The Project

Recreating this saddle, which isn’t complete yet, took a lot of time, quite a bit of money, and plenty of skill. Thankfully my dad is a good “handy man” and had the time to help me create this project. The supplies for the saddle included: wood, plywood, wood glue, epoxy, saddle leather, leather stitching, leather sewing needles, stirrups, a cinch, and water. The tools used for this project were: three different types of saws, two different sanders, plenty of clamps, special cutters for the leather, screws and screwdrivers, along with water and a wood shaper. Based off of the supplies and tools used building a saddle is a little overwhelming but you start one thing at a time and thankfully I had actually found a set of instructions online on how to make a saddle. Ironically enough, Sir Armand, the man who wrote the set of instructions actually suggested not making the wood base because that takes plenty of time and skill; I clearly didn’t follow that suggestion.

After more research and assembling what was needed, I started the project off by taking apart an early 20th century saddle my dads friend had to see what the pieces of the saddle were and how they were put together. This was a total mess but proved worth it because we were able to base our saddletree (the wood base) off of this one. Once we knew the pieces and shapes we got to work. We took our large piece of pine wood and cut it into fourths.  After being cut the pieces were glued in twos, creating two larger pieces of wood that would serve as the middle of the saddle. These pieces needed a day to dry so while that was going on, we started to make the pommel and cantle pieces.

This required yet another trip to home depot, the lady even remembered our names because we had  gone there four times that day. We needed a large sheet of plywood which would  be cut into eight pieces. Once those pieces were cut, I wet them with water and bent them to fit the shape of the jig my dad had made with extra wood we had. This was a repetitive process until there were four layers of wood with glue in between each. To insure the four shaped pieces of wood would dry in the proper place without air pockets in the glue, we put about twenty to twenty five clamps on it. These four shaped pieces took two to three days to dry, and we repeated the process with the other four pieces of plywood, which created two thick pieces of shaped wood that would serve as the pommel and cantle.

Once everything had dried, it was time to shape each of the pieces. The pommel and cantle pieces were the hardest ones to do, being that the pieces were bent wood. I drew on the shape I wanted for both the pommel and cantle then cut them with the band saw. After they were cut to shape I had to sand the edges to make sure they were smooth and complete the pieces.

Video of shaping the pieces with the band saw

Next was putting holes in the near front of the middle pieces to ensure a spot to put leather through for stirrups. Following that, it was time to sand and shape those pieces: this took a lot of time because I tended to screw this up a lot and my dad had to fix my mistakes. Eventually I got the hang of it and the middle pieces were shaped to look like the ones from the saddle I took apart.

With every piece being the desired shape it was time to put all of them together. For this we created a base to keep the middle pieces together and hold the pommel and cantle pieces where they were suppose to go. When this was figured out we used epoxy to glue the pommel and cantle to the middle pieces, securing them. This took a few days to dry and create a strong bond. Eventually with all of the pieces finally together the only work left was a little more sanding and then the saddletree complete.

Continuing the Project 

Due to the fact it took a lot of time and work building the saddletree and that I have no idea how to work with genuine leather, I wasn’t able to complete the entire project in the time frame given. I do have everything I need to complete the saddle and I intend to; I just need to find someone who knows how to work with leather before I start that part. Once I find someone to help me finish the saddle it will be completely covered in leather with padding underneath, have its fenders and stirrups (place for your legs and feet), along with a billet and cinch (they keep the saddle on the horse).

I’m hoping to be able to put the saddle along with the entire attire on my horse and ride come spring.

Modern Times

The most common saddles used today are primarily Western and English saddles. Western saddles are larger and heavier than English saddles. They are designed to spread the weight of the rider over a larger area of the horses back, making things like cow chasing and other activities like that more comfortable. However English saddles are smaller and lighter, designed to give the rider a closer contact with their horse’s back. Both of these types of saddles have different variations depending on sports and disciplines. Obviously with the different types of saddles, they are also different styles of riding. The main difference between English and Western is that in “English riding, the rider takes a direct contact with the horse’s mouth via the reins and uses the reins as part of the “aids” (along with the seat and the leg) for speed and direction while most western riding horses are ridden on little or no contact and the rider uses his seat, his weight and neck-reining to give aids to the horse.”

What I’ve Learned

This project was difficult but it took me out of my comfort zone. It made me work really hard creatively, and gain confidence in myself as a historian and a rider. I never thought that I could make a saddle yet here I am doing just that. Woodwork is not a skill set of mine and thankfully I had my dad to help me with that. Doing this project though has made me realize how hard it is making a saddle with today’s tools and machines so I can’t even begin to imagine the amount of work that would have to go into one during the medieval times. It would have taken someone a long time to make a saddle back then and with how needed saddles were, it could have been a fulltime job. I have a new found respect for the people who makes saddles now and am finally able to understand the price tag that comes with them.

 

Bibliography

Lobell, Jarrett, and Eric A. Powell. “The Story of the Horse.” Archaeology.org. 1 July 2015. Web. 1 Oct. 2015.

Langdon, John. “A Quiet Revolution- The Horse in Agriculture, 1100-1500.” History Today 39.7 (1989): 32-37. Web. 1 Oct. 2015.

Clark, John. The Medieval Horse and Its Equipment, C.1150-1450. Woodbridge: Boydell, 2011. Print.

Hyland, Ann. The Warhorse, 1250-1600. Stroud: Sutton, 1998. Print.

Koets, Arne. “Re-Creating Medieval and Renaissance Saddles.” The Jousting Life. Web. 17 Nov. 2015. http://www.thejoustinglife.com/2014/03/re-creating-medieval-and-renaissance.html.

De Sevigny, Sir Armand. “Reproduction of the Early Medieval Knights Saddle.” Web. http://artemisia.sca.org/new/download/equestrian/medievalSaddle.PDF

Wilson, Jayne. “English Versus Western Riding – What’s the Difference?” English Versus Western Riding. Accessed December 11, 2015. http://www.equisearch.com/article/english-vs-western-riding-17557.