Recreating a Greek Cavalryman

[Paul Elliott]

Thracian horsearcher vs hoplites.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ZF-vca2aSSI/Tp...C_0689.JPG

Nice. A very effective photograph!

[Paul Elliott]

Due to operator error, I hadn't seen the Scyth. WOW! My hat's off to her.

Yes, she looks quite the 'amazon'.

[Cheyenne]

The Scythian is the first impression that myself and Persephone (my Friesian x Dales) will be undertaking when she is old enough to be broken in and ridden... the fittings will be made for the tack and I have spoken with Chris (saddlers den) in the past about the pack saddle which is reasonably easy to make and is similar to the Mongolian steppe saddle. The barding of the Scythian tombs is rather austentatious... a long term project

[John Conyard]

Thank you Stefanos, it all sounds excellent. Could we use the photo on the Early Riding Group website with a suitable credit and link to your website? It sounds like you are the first Greek re-enactment group with their own mounted members which is excellent. Hopefully more and more re-enactors will develop cavalry over the next few years and it would be good to publicise riding as Greeks and Romans as much as possible.

I did not know of the Hellenic Horseback Society, but I like their approach in doing bareback etc. http://www.horsebackarcherygr.com/

Comitatus do a great deal of Roman horseback archery and last spring we wrote a big article for the British Horseback Archery Association (BHAA). It is certainly interesting to see just how popular horse archery is as a sport, and some participants do dress up as Mongols or Turks. But of course I would like them to go back to the classical period, or at least late antiquity.

I have never done bareback archery, something to look forward to this winter. Luckily there is a reasonable amount of evidence for Scythian saddles and we are building two of them at the moment.

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

That is a very interesting website, John!
Nice to see Amy's talents are not wasted!
Nice to discover a new resource!

@Stephanos. the website looks awesome indeed!
I just wish I had made bigger efforts to learn Greek when I started 10 years ago.
Something to add to my to do list!

[Giannis K. Hoplite]

Congratulations for your kit Amy! And very nice photos of greek/skythian cavalry! Comitatus keeps getting better and better on greek impressions very quickly! (I consider the skythian cavalry(wo)men part of the greek world)
Can't wait to see the finished impression of the skyth!
John, how does the new t&y behave on the horse?
Khairete
Giannis

[John Conyard]

Cheers Giannis. We can kit up 6 Greek riders using my equipment room and spare helmets and plan on having a Greek and Roman weekend at the yard in the next few weeks for some general fun and more photos.

My impressions of the new tube and yoke will go up on the Early Riding Group website in the next few days. http://earlyridinggroup.org/ I will email you a word doc before then. But in a nutshell it was easy to move in and the scales didn't move or rattle. My waxed linen ties worn out and were replaced with leather ones. My seat was fine and I could use the various weapons, but we rode in a very precise way. Roman saddles give great security and much of that security vanishes without them.

[Ammianus]

Congratulations for your kit Amy! And very nice photos of greek/skythian cavalry! Comitatus keeps getting better and better on greek impressions very quickly! (I consider the skythian cavalry(wo)men part of the greek world)
Can't wait to see the finished impression of the skyth!

Thanks Giannis, I am working hard and hopefully it will be done within the next few months, including the two saddles John and I are working on. It will be great when finished! :-D

Will keep everyone posted 8)

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

(I consider the skythian cavalry(wo)men part of the greek world)

Yes I agree giannis, the empahasis being on part! :wink:

[hoplite14gr]

As promised but more to come:

Thracian mercenary horsearcher and Sogdian vs hoplites demostration - preparation phase.

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

Very nice horse!

[hoplite14gr]

A couple of video snap shots from a Thracian horse archer.

[Vindex]

Impressive stuff totally bareback. Your Thracian archer is to be congratulated.

It may seem a basic question, Giannis, but may I ask how he gets on his horse? Does he vault? Does the horse kneel?

I would like to know for my own theories...many thanks

[hoplite14gr]

Hmm I think you question was addressed to me and not Giannis.

Our horse riding members who had their training with the "horseback archery society" have to two ways of mounting.

If their agile enough they grab the horses mane and jump on his back.
I not they are being helped by the rest of us.

No horse kneeling is practised.
Totally bare-back is VERY BAD idea due to horse lather! We learned the hard way!

Kind regards

[jvrjenivs]

Totally bare-back is VERY BAD idea due to horse lather! We learned the hard way!

Well, my English can be a problem here, but what do you mean by this? I regularly train bareback and we do our horseback gladiatorial combat bareback also, without any problem.