Sarmatian horses

[Sean Manning]

My colleague Carolyn Willikes' forthcoming PhD thesis will address many of these issues of types of horses in the ancient world.

You can swing yourself into the saddle in relatively flexible armour (ie mail) and some of the mounted members of the Forum will endorse this. I have done it in extremis out hunting with horses that just wont stand still when others are moving around (up to 17hh but that's when I was MUCH younger and fitter!) The four horned saddles provide a challenge but they also give you something to hang on to or hook a leg on as necessary.

Not just flexible armour: I am pretty sure that a life of Boucicault tells us that he practiced vaulting into the saddle in full armour. In the late 14th century that was a suit of articulated plate over a suit of mail. Weak or lazy cavalrymen could have their groom make a "step" with their hands, as Xenophon describes, but Xenophon expected a good horseman to be able to vault onto his horse's back while wearing a bronze helmet and cuirass.