Adventures in the Roman Cavalry Part 5

September 2011.
This summer really saw our displays come of age in terms of quality and entertainment. Authenticity has always been excellent, but 2011 saw a new dimension to our shows. It has been an outstanding summer.

Winter was a very difficult period. Our horses were not getting any younger and one stalwart had to be retired after falling backwards with one of our riders on two separate occasions. Luckily the rider escaped serious injury. I spent months with one horse working through the show with him step by step. By March he could just about do a show, but any sudden noise or even movement spooked him and we bolted more times than I can remember. He was just too unpredictable to be used in public. We were left with an aging Murph, my first ever Roman mount, and young horses that in my opinion could not yet do a full show in a controlled manner. At the same time a Health and Safety Executive report on the tragic death of a jouster back in 2007 re-focussed attention on the use of horses in re-enactment.

The concern over horses and health and safety meant we made the decision to start training at Mark Atkinson’s yard at Eastrington, just outside Howden. Atkinson’s Action Horses are a family business offering a range of horses for hire, carrying out film work, re-enactment and stunt work, as well as working for the Royal armouries in Leeds. Mark had a large string of horses suitable for what we wanted, all very well prepared and trained.

By spring we had a very hard decision to make. Logically the decision was straight forward but to me especially it felt like the end of an era. Leaving Claire's yard was sad for many of us especially myself who started riding there back in 2006, and we wish her every success in the future.

Any feelings of sadness were soon dispelled by Mark’s professional attitude and attention to detail. We responded positively and mentally moved up a gear. And the horses were a revelation. They enabled us to start rethinking our shows and just what we could demonstrate to the public. Mark and his son Ben are without a doubt the most accomplished horsemen I have ever had the privilege of knowing. Their horses are excellently trained and brilliantly turned out.

We made the sensible decision to keep things relatively simple for the first show of the year and the weather was very kind to us. An amazing 9,000 visitors came to see the infantry and cavalry displays at Wallington, a National Trust property. It was the best cavalry display we had ever done and the whole weekend was superb. It set a benchmark for the rest of the year.

We soon came to realise that the horses would not just allow us to hit the targets and look good, but would allow us to change the nature of the show and make it more challenging. And they would allow us not just to ride but to ride in an entertaining way making the whole show more exciting. We introduced more formation work in the displays, changed the nature of the arena, introduced new elements to the show, speeded the whole thing up and played to the audience. We barely missed a target all year. Every show was excellent and the standard of riding improved as the year went on.

In fact we started to measure ourselves against Mark and Ben and began to realise our short comings. Lessons were booked, understood, practiced and learnt. We understood just how much we had to learn and rather than be daunted by the task we faced up to it. We do not want to be good riders but excellent riders. Another 10 years and we may get there!

Not only were our shows of a much higher standard, but our safety record is still second to none. I suspect we have the biggest and best risk assessment in the business, the result of many years experience and study. The new horses are used to public displays and are the safest I have ever worked with. And the same is true of the riders.

We used six different riders in our shows this year, all of them good experienced troopers used to performing for the public. Some cavalry re-enactment invite riders to join them and do not have an open to all policy and I am beginning to have some sympathy with this view. In previous years we have allowed a novice owner rider, to take his horse to events and sit on it in a corner to encourage other horses to run towards it. Our risk assessment could not allow that during 2011. While Comitatus positively engages people to try Roman riding, only our best riders ride in public shows. Every year we receive emails from people wanting to ride for us, but sadly few of them are interested in Romans, early riding or using the correct equipment. Riding as a Roman is certainly fun, but riding in public demands a professional attitude.

In terms of equipment 2011 was a very special one. We had our normal influx of high quality helmets but what made the year was the use of saddles developed within the group. Indeed on August Bank Holiday every rider was using one of the new saddles. Frankly a lot of utter rubbish is still written about Roman saddles, and I feel the pioneering work of Peter Connolly has in my opinion still not been fully recognised by all. Connolly made around 25 saddles and others have made many more over the past few years. The find of a possible wooden cantle from Carlisle and the internal wear and stress marks on existing leather saddle covers all point to the use of solid side boards, cantles and horns. The complete saddle covers from Carlisle suggested that the leather covers could be removed from the wooden frame, and Comitatus pioneered the use of this saddle design.

Several years ago I was concerned that the use of a solid frame would mean each saddle could only fit one horse. Yet we can view Roman saddles as akin to later military saddles based on Hungarian Hussar saddle design. Such saddles were based on a solid wooden frame, were made in a variety of sizes, and the rider was expected to learn to fold their saddle cloth in such a way to make the saddle fit their horse. As horses lost condition on campaign the troopers would have adjusted the padding under their saddles to make the saddle still fit the horse comfortably. Horses would grow used to the saddles, in the same way that their unshod hooves would harden with exercise. The Roman military like later armies would endeavour to purchase a certain size and type of horse, one well suited to their saddle design.

I now market and sell Roman saddles made to this design to buyers all around the world. I wanted to make Roman riding available to all and by making saddles commercially available new groups and individuals are starting to experiment with Roman cavalry in their own right.

But there are still many questions to be answered about the design, which makes it of interest to saddle reconstructors and Roman military specialists. I am amazed at the number of people who still question aspects of this design, yet their questions were first addressed by Peter Connolly and Carol Van Driel Murray in their article “The Roman Saddle” in Britannia Volume XXII, back in 1991.

Junkelmann and others suggested that a saddle without an internal frame, often called a pad saddle, was kinder to a horses back, would fit a greater range of size of horse, and be more serviceable. Indeed saddle reconstructions tend to fall into the “Connolly camp” using a solid internal frame, or the “German pad saddle school” using a stiff well padded saddle that conforms to the horses back.

Over the past year several interested parties have communicated with me advocating the pad saddle approach on the grounds of being kinder to the horse. Some have come very close to suggesting I am being cruel to horses by using wooden frame saddles, an assertion which would be based on ignorance.

Others look at evidence in the form of surviving copper alloy horn plates and suggest these dictate larger saddles which perhaps were armoured. They perceive the Connolly design as too small and not corresponding to such plates or horn stiffeners. Indeed Timetrotter in Germany use saddles re-enforced externally with copper-alloy plates, and very good they look too.

But as Connolly and Van Driel Murray pointed out back in 1991 we should not believe that there was just one design of Roman saddle. Larger saddles, perhaps re-enforced by copper alloy may have been needed by heavily armoured riders or shock troops. And while the military used wooden framed saddles, civilians could have used versions of the pad saddle. Indeed price edicts do suggest cheaper saddles being used alongside the more expensive military saddle or scordiscum.

The sizes of the horns are in part dictated by the surviving copper alloy horn plates, possibly acting as stiffeners to help strengthen the horn. The holes found in these plates could be used to nail the plate directly to the frame. However some plates are of a surprising thickness perhaps suggesting they are for protection and should be sewn externally to the cover.

The fact that individual names have been found scratched or punched on to the stiffeners has been used as evidence that they were used externally where they would be easily visible, or internally where they would be visible when the cover was lifted off the frame. Of course not all saddles may have used copper alloy plates. These protectors or stiffeners do not give an absolute indication of the angle of horns which can be derived from sculptural evidence.

So far the perfect frame construction has frankly escaped us. The secret probably lies in the use of various materials to provide both strength and flexibility. We can learn something from the construction of later saddles and the balance of materials used. Connolly used laminated birch to build the frame and metal brackets and bolts to help hold the horns securely to the frame. Such brackets may have been used by the Romans but we lack the evidence. Yet in some cases laminated cantles have split with use and age. But most saddle reconstructions use steamed plywood to make the sideboards, an easy strong option.

It seems that a large variety of woods were used in Germanic and Anglo-Saxon saddles, and hard archaeological evidence survives. Our saddles use solid beech for the cantles, re-enforced with brackets. The 1859 McClellan saddle was partially held together using rawhide as were many older saddles and I suspect that rawhide would also have a role to play in securing the joints in Roman saddles. As it dries and shrinks it would hold joints together while providing an element of flexibility. I find it hard not to see these saddles as very organic, made of wood, goat skin, rawhide, sinew etc.

I have not mentioned the nature of saddle covers, but will point out that the triplet straps are used in our reconstructions to secure the leather cover to the frame. A practical use for them as well as using them to suspend decoration or your enemies’ heads. Most modern leather needs considerable work to make it suitable for saddle covers. When making such saddles for sale there is a tension between the customers wish for a saddle that will last forever and fit any horse or backside, and an accurate reconstruction using the correct materials.

Many riders, myself included, are probably larger and heavier than the average presumed Roman rider. So production saddles have to be durable and tough to handle any weight and mishandling. Dropping saddles may deform the wooden frame and even break horns, and riders generally request the unbreakable saddle. Making the saddle work on the horse takes time and patience, in the same way it takes time to make personal kit work on horseback. And there is a safety aspect to consider. Our girth attachments are sewn to nylon webbing which is attached to the frame. The nylon is far stronger and less likely to stretch than leather or linen.

One change this year was in the use of bow cases for strung bows. This was one of those typical equipment issues that plague re-enactment groups. I am very fond of horse archery and generally carried a strung bow during displays. Others copied my example. The evidence for how Romans carried bows is slight, and we have to rely on barbarian iconography to fill the gaps. Unstrung bow cases were the obvious answer. A broken bow reduced to the level of stage prop unstrung in case carried on the saddle looks well in photographs, but in effect just adds to the weight carried by the horse.

Before the 4th century combined bow and arrow cases were common, often for relatively small bows such as the Scythian symmetrical bow. The Orlat battle plaque shows asymmetrical bows carried in strung in cases with two tubular quivers attached to the front.

While this is a hard bit of iconography to date, the arrangement seems to be borne out by other finds. Some of us added integral quivers to the front of our bow cases as shown on the plaque. In effect we switched the quiver from the left to the right of the rider and added two tubes for arrows, attaching them to the front of the quiver. The two different tubular quivers could be used to carry arrows for war or for hunting, or light flight arrows and heavy close range versions. My case was made from relatively heavy leather, in part to protect the arrows and to ensure the quivers kept their shape.

The result was a heavy bit of equipment which dragged on the belt and the rider. I can see how in time the bow case and quiver would become separated and worn on different sides of the body. But although speculative, the combined bow case and quiver gave me a great independence during displays. I had a long range missile capacity and was not reliant on the grooms handing me up bows and arrows. Indeed during practice sessions I could ignore my sword and take targets with arrows instead. Putting on the Orlat-style case almost become synonymous with riding ready for war.

Comitatus has helped equip other groups to enable them to start Roman riding and we will continue to do so. We have always encouraged people to ride like Romans. Yet it does sadden me that many ride in public in such poor equipment. On the same rider swords, belts and helmets often range over several hundred years.

Riding is great fun but if it is to be something more, something that may help understand the use of Roman equipment and cavalry, then riders need constantly to review their equipment and what they are trying to achieve.