Forums at The Military Horse

Still in it's early stages but there is a project in hand to re-make these very useful saddles to original spec. rest assured that if it does come off I'll let everyone on here know.

Glad you spotted the MG08 anomaly as well, why would a German admin area have 6 or so MG08 set up on tripods ready to fire..facing their own undefended camp? I'd have to cehck but early on in the war the MMG was a Regimental asset for British and German Infantry regiments, our Cavalry also had MMG ...

John,

typo, meant to write rifle buckets not lance buckets, see the ones he made close up and are spot on, used mine as the model for them.

Looked at some stills,

blankets are folded rather large and flappy and all horses seem to have the reins on the bottom two slots of the PMR bit, not top ring ...

John,

Only seen it once so far. I know the guy who made the lance buckets. Can't have made the headkits though as he'd have got that right for sure!

The errors do make you wonder who they used as the 'expert' to advise on skills and kit? or was it the 'luvvies' just going it'll do it will look ...

Saw it last night, a pretty good film, a few things stuck out though.

Accents were clearly Hollywood Devonshire not real Devon, I used to live there. However with a really thick Devon accent full of dialect most people would probably not have understood a word they said!

UP Headcollar Buckles on ...

Heard some stuff about the filming, they are trying but not totally there on accuracy.

UP saddles but copies not real.

Wallets and gear held on with cable ties.

The usual, 'film horses' not proper British hunter type mounts that the Yeomanry would have had in 1914!

Suspect us purists will find ...

A little off topic, but are those portugues dragoons using 1902 Headkits (but with the headrope coiled & tied up not around the neck) and UP saddles?

On the slide bit I would say that the rider leaning forward in the earlier picture is perhaps forwards in order to be ready for the horse launching ...

They would be much fitter than riding there.

A train track is always on a straight or decent curve, by their very nature trains cannot turn sharp corners! unlike horse lorries. Trains also tend to start and stop fairly steadily, hence the strain for a given distance may be less than by road. Have ...

Nicole,

I have a pair (or nearly so) of those stirrup irons. Oddly they came with a 1912 hinged UP saddle. One is stamped Mole & Co, a British maker, and the other Linden & Funke. One must be a pre WW1 export from UK.

Agree, it looks far too tight to actually shoe in so must be posed, if that horse moved you'd end up in the fire! Looks more like the shoeing area would be in fornt of the working area where there are no boards. Must be posed as no-one would wear their best boots to shoe, as they would not be best ...

John,

Good photos of your stirrup irons, looking at the hussar irons it looks like you have picked up my old pair of hussar irons, I traded them in a few years back for a pair of Royal North Devon Hussar ones because they were abetter size to use, my feet only fitted in the other ones in very slim ...

Stirrup irons, quite lot were used but by the UP era there were a few types:

Pre WW1 a standard 3 bar tread pattern hunting type iron, also the light cavalry oval type hussar irons (mainly victorian era but I have seen later pictures, aminly ceremonial ie CO's Charger)

WW1 standard issue was a ...

A quick guide from memory to fititng the 1902 UP (&1912)

Select correct sized tree(1902 only) most troop horses take Medium marked M on front arch. S for Cobs, L for large horses.

Remove numnah panels, place bare tree on back, check for general fit, ie shape of side bars.

Repeat process with ...

I agree on all that you have said.

It is a pity that many of today's english saddle makers ahve not read and followed the wisdon of the cavalry of 100 years ago. I have read many of the British manuals and it quite funny, ironic almost at times to then read the same general wisdom on saddle fitting ...

I have an Australian made 1912, produced around 1915, I used this saddle for around a year as my regular riding saddle, the flex in the side bars allows them to move with the horse as well as adjusting to fit, by the way you still need to adjusts the numnah panels to the horses back front to back as ...