unclearthur wrote:John M wrote:.
The breastplate has a long and a short shoulder strap, that buckle together, the long end was looped around the front spoon. The connection point of the 3 strap is covered by a heart shaped piece of leather.
The holsters were looped to the front spoon, the lower ends held by rings on the breastplate.
Don't you just love historians? Haythornthwaite is wrong, yet these two statements make no logical sense - practically, I can't see how they could work.
Interesting that the French saddle has steel on the 'wrong' side of the arch - the angle fixed to the sideboard must be weaker than if the steel were on the reverse. Could there be another hoop at the back with the two rivetted together through the timber?
http://cavalrytales.wordpress.com
I never answered this critisism as at the time I was not a member. A bit belatedly, but I would want to adress this.
I've added a drawing of a French hungarian saddle, that has the same configuration. You'll notice the ring around the lower end of the holster. This ring is at the inside attached to the shoulder strap of the breastplate. The shoulder strap itself continues underneath the holster towards the front spoon over which its looped. The loop is secured with a braided slide. The off-hand shoulder strap is the longer of the two, so that the buckle of the near end is to the left, above or below the left holster ring, depending on the model.
This construction is common to all hungarian and spoon-type light cavalry saddles until the mid-19th Century.