Roman saddle - Lost Technology?

[M. Demetrius]

This is a little off the topic of saddles, but for those who don't believe you can do much creative riding without stirrups, take a look at this youtube. Of course, Ms. Westfall isn't carrying a lance, but she isn't carrying a bridle, either. Or a saddle.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-7v8Ck1 ... re=related

[Medicus matt]

As for why the Arab armies cut through the European armies, I would suspect it had a lot to do with the composite (not compound) bow, which the Arabs got from the Central Asian horsemen. ..

From what I've read, the Europeans put their trust in heavy horses, whereas the Arabs had lighter, faster and more manouverable mounts which ran rings around their lumbering counterparts, something that the Europeans addressed by incorporating caputred Arab horses into their own breeding stock.

[Dan Howard]

I'm not sure there was much of a difference between Middle Eastern and European horses during the crusades. Weapons and tactics were virtually identical apart from a heavier reliance on archery by the Moslems. Don't pay too much attention to Ann Hyland. She is heavily biased against European horses. Virtually every sentence she writes has the subtext "aren't Arabic horses wonderful compared to those nasty European ones"

[Medicus matt]

I'm not sure there was much of a difference between Middle Eastern and European horses during the crusades. Weapons and tactics were virtually identical apart from a heavier reliance on archery by the Moslems. Don't pay too much attention to Ann Hyland. She is heavily biased against European horses. Virtually every sentence she writes has the subtext "aren't Arabic horses wonderful compared to those nasty European ones"

By the 11th century, no, not much difference because the europeans had been utilising arab bloodstock and redeveloping equine breeding programmes since Charlemagne.
However, I thought the comments in this thread were referring to the superiority of muslim over western european cavalry in the 8th century?

I don't pay much attention to Ann Hyland at all; although her 'Medieval Warhorse' is an interesting read, I've read around the subject enough to form my own opinions. Davis' 'Medieval Warhorse' has a detailed discussion of the waxing and waning of horsebreeding through antiquity and early medieval history.