Old Swedish Saddles

[oldtimer]

A few pics from a Swedish museum showing saddles and bridles from the 15th century, used by kings and nobility.

http://www.lsh.se/skokloster/ridkonst/sadelsamling.html

http://www.lsh.se/skokloster/ridkonst/betselbilder.html

/ Knut

[alb]

very cool! thanks for posting.

Ann

[David Genadek]

A few pics from a Swedish museum showing saddles and bridles from the 15th century, used by kings and nobility.

http://www.lsh.se/sk...delsamling.html

http://www.lsh.se/sk...tselbilder.html

/ Knut

These are really interesting to see. Brida saddles with a double configuration for the rigging very interesting. It is also fun to look at some of the other pages where they are showing pictures of people riding. You can see how braced the riders are and how hollowed out backs of the horses are. It's also interesting to note the shape of the seats are such that if the rider chose to ride in the Estriota position they could because there is a flat place for their pelvis. However, all the pictures on the other pages show the riders riding Brida. It does make one wonder where the silly idea of having a ramped seat came into being.

It would be fun to know which riding schools had the greatest influence in Sweden. Over all what was the role of the horse in Swedish Culture? Did the common folks ride or just drive?

David Genadek

[oldtimer]

These are really interesting to see. Brida saddles with a double configuration for the rigging very interesting. It is also fun to look at some of the other pages where they are showing pictures of people riding. You can see how braced the riders are and how hollowed out backs of the horses are. It's also interesting to note the shape of the seats are such that if the rider chose to ride in the Estriota position they could because there is a flat place for their pelvis. However, all the pictures on the other pages show the riders riding Brida. It does make one wonder where the silly idea of having a ramped seat came into being.

It would be fun to know which riding schools had the greatest influence in Sweden. Over all what was the role of the horse in Swedish Culture? Did the common folks ride or just drive?

David Genadek

Agriculture was the main occupation so the common folks were driving their horses. Riding was a military, upper class matter. In those days Sweden was a powerful country in Europe, fighting wars in Russia, Poland and all over Europe. One of the biggest problems for the cavalry was the small size of the swedish horses, 13 - 14 hands ( similar to the Iceland ponies ) at the time so the government imported stallions from the baltic states, Germany and other European contries to improve the breed and to gain size. Although the cavalry horses were small they carried their riders and gear ( total ~300 lbs) all the way to Russia, and down Europe and won many battles. The Swedish cavalry tactic was to ride "Knee by Knee" and brake through the enemy lines like an arrow point.

Many Swedish cavalry officers ( noblemen by birth!) started their carreer as mercenaries and officers in foreign armies and brought their riding skills home from many places around Europe.

Today , riding is a female sport in Sweden, I´d estimate 95% of all riders are girls/ women. The men are found in the harness racing sport, which is big in Scandinavia ( driving heritage !) . I think there are only two tracks for racing ( gallop) in the country.

/ Knut

http://www.google.co...ved=0CBoQ9QEwAA

Edited July 11, 2010 by oldtimer