Forums at Society of the Military Horse

Yes, I likewise got mine and while I have not had a chance to read it with care, I can without hesitation say "well done, and what fun!" Now for a question for Dusan to which I didn't see reference in the book -- the 1913 practice sabers. I have a pretty full set of practice equipments, pl...

Indeed so. Decent pix of all the features I mentioned. Most have now faded to about that shade of brown now, too. Mine has; I have no idea why. It has had NO use or exposure since it was black.

It isn't an American M1904, and it doesn't use an American tree . The tree is obviously derived from the McClellan, but with differences. The pommel in particular is different (I am going from memory as mine is buried under a lot of stuff), and the quarter strap rigging is different as are, if memor...

Thank you, Joe.

Now this would be a good excuse to bring Dusan over...

Joe and Dusan:

I know where Dusan lives, so know he can't sign this, but wonder if Joe can intercept my pre-ordered copy and sign it?

I have one, but a guy i gave it to for repairs decided to replace the straps and did not do a sensitive job.

Our old friend JIm Ottevare owned large quantity of Macs over time, and while his superb collection kept the best and he sold off the merely good, he dismantled and reworked the ratty ones for the the benefit of the hunting outfitters in the Rockies. He took detailed measurments of many saddles and ...

I just ordered a copy on-line. Shame Dusan and Joe cannot sign it...

Little to do with cavalry except in passing, but the relatively new Kotkin biography of Stalin is simply excellent. I saw it reviewed in The Atlantic , bought it, and have found that it exceeds expectations. Kotkin goes beyond Stalin and gives a lucid explanation of all of the elements of Tzarist Ru...

Not sure the uniform. As Tom points out, the rider's seat and posture are bad. That horse is also hollow as can be. Sure doesn't look like a well-trained rider.

YOu know, there must be an obscure reason why, although there were half as many artillery saddles, and in as much as artillery saddles were actually used in the way while the cavalry didn't do much riding in that war, the artillery saddles seem to turn up more frequently than the cavalry-rigged ones.

Going way out into speculation, a thesis for your consideration: I wonder if the increasing discrimination against black sailors is in part an artifact of the mechanization of the Navy? IN the days of fighting sail, every hand who was not a beginner had a set of highly critical and specialized skill...

You are right about the immigrant population of the army. During the 19th century, when service meant years of hard labor as construction gangs and the like as much as it did riding horses, once the War Between the States was over, who would enlist unless he had limited options? Officers are an enti...

I am trying hard to descend to the necessary level to make an entry here, but am not quite there yet...

Really, there is no likelihood of the Buffalo soldiers being forgotten, as the army has decided to put such emphasis on them. Rather, the risk is that their real history is being sterilized and so their reality is fading into myth. It is certainly true that black troops coming from the most disadvan...

Somewhere in Steffen's work he notes that the 1890s were a period of experimentation, with both colors turning up. If memory serves, he notes a saddle in his collection that had both colors on it, one top and one bottom.

One suspects that this corps was formed before anyone really understood the nature of trench warfare, machine guns and barbed wire...

I agree with Dusan. Those photos are completely in the public domain, and while anyone can go find them can copy them, few do. If those few want to pay someone else for the copies, the market determines the value. On the other hand, if the government licenses IP that was or otherwise would be in the...

If that picture is really in Texas, I'd guess that the town is El Paso, from the looks of the mountain behind.

interestingly, despite that and such later items as Byron's Senacharib, "The Assyrian came down like a wolf on the fold..." according to a fairly comprehensive survey I have been reading of the Babylonian and Assyrian empires, in both cases their wealth was more based on trade and agricult...