Fwd: Queries

[James A. Landau]

In a message dated 11/15/03 12:24:02 AM Eastern Standard Time,
LISTSERV at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU writes:

> My daughter has trained with an Oberbereiter from the Spanish Riding School
> in  Vienna.  The form of dressage on display there derives from military
riding
>  techniques.
        <snip>
>  I suspect that the Pad-Saddle is a more
>  luxurious saddle with a padded seat -- better for long rides.  It may also
>  refer to the enclosing saddle that had padded rolls on the pommel and
>  cantle to help hold the rider in (like the saddles still used at the Spansh
>  Riding School)

In modern terminology "pad saddle" means "A cushion used as a saddle without
a tree or frame."  (quoted from
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=pad%20saddle).
Google has 2030 hits, although many of these are for "saddle pad" which is
something different.

Now did General Monck's original c1645 quote refer to such a frameless
saddle, or did he refer to a padded framed saddle?  It's not possible to tell from
the context given.  Most well-equpped cavalry units preferred, for obvious
reasons, very strongly-built saddles, sometimes even with armor built in.  But not
all.  "The [Union Army] artillery, by the way, usually had a saddle entirely
different from the cavalry's---a "Jennifer," much more of a pad saddle than
the McClellan, with a stitched padded seat and a high, curving, wishbone,
brass-rimmed pommel and cantle...The Jennifer, and the similar but somewhat more
elaborate "Grimsley,"...were harder on the horses' back than the McClellan was.
But General Jeb Stuart liked Jennifers, nevertheless"

Foster-Harris _The Look of the Old West_ New York: Viking, 1955, page 80 for
the quote, page 240 on war saddles.

I have no further comments on "forepattern" or "slit saddle".

        - James A. Landau
          systems engineer
          FAA Technical Center (ACB-510/BCI)
          Atlantic City Int'l Airport NJ 08405 USA

PS.  The following, from Foster-Harris page 11, may be a folk etymology, but
it's worth quoting:

"the troopers were supposed to wear an atrocity of a stock, of black leather.
 This is where the name "leatherneck" came from, since the Marines also had
to wear these dog-collar affairs and evidently did.  And "raw recruit" no doubt
stemmed from the same galling source.  But in no Civil War or later picture
have I been abele to make certain than any solider is actually wearing such a
stock.   Hanged if I blame them!"