Mongol saddles and a Mongolian warrior in MyPaint

Salve,
I would like to share a quick sketch I made after a Chinese drawing of Batu-khan and look at the Mongolian saddles through history.
I admit I have neglected the Great Eurasian steppe so there are some images and text to do away with this awful negligence on my part - :)

Again, I will start a link to this great article on the medieval and later Central Asia saddles. And another article titled 'Mongolian Horse and Horseman'

Well, the Mongolian-style saddles of the Great Steppe developed, over a period of 1000 years, from the horned saddles invented by the Indo-European nomads - Saka and Tocharians (Yuezhi) sometime during III-II centuries BC [e.g. according to prof. Nikonorov] - nota bene  there are some very recent interesting discoveries from Mongolia related to soma ritual, amanita muscaria (''muchomor czerwony'' in Polish) in form of tapestries showing armoured warriors, horses and saddles -  through the saddles most fully seen in the Tang Chinese  sculpture and paintings of VI -VIII centuries AD, as evidenced by this beautiful horse here or by image of the saddle horse of great Tang Emperor Tang Taizong:

This is the Middle Ages Mongolian saddle tree from the Ulan Bataar Museum, dated to XV century:

and another old saddle tree:

And this is a beautifully lacquered and painted saddle tree from the Ming Dynasty:

Photos a Mongolian saddle tree and here, and here is an image of modern saddle from Mongolia:

And here there is a great photo of full modern Mongolian saddle outfit.

 And this is my sketch:

 Beautiful saddle (intricate metal work of the pommel visible) from the National Museum of Mongolia.

On this site there is a book on how to make Mongolian saddles [sic!]

Some interesting stories and images of modern Great Steppe by the so called Salomon 'nomads'- or modern travellers in search of adventure

ps
prolific Polish early modern history blogger and researcher Michal Kadrinazi offers a link to a docudrama on the battle of Vienna 1683 Ad.
Also,I can happily share with you that my friend Radek Sikora has finished a book on the winged hussars during the 1683 battle of Vienna.

****
the first image  is a painting of a Mongol warrior painted during the Ming Dynasty.

China I - Tang Taizong and his steeds

Salve,
I am planing to start blogging more about the Eastern Eurasian Steppe, the Altai Saka, Xiongnu, Tocharians of Eastern Turkestan, Turkic empires, Mongolian and Chinese cavalry and horsemanship. While I am not planing to abandon European knights and horses, I think I must devote much more space and time to these splendid cavaliers of the Ordos Steppe and Orkhon River plains.

Actually, I am very fascinated with the early nomads of the eastern Eurasia, especially the Upper Altai of South Siberia during the Bronze Age and in the first millennium BC . And in the light of their development in the arts of horsemanship and horse tack, their ( Saka and Xiongnu) influence on their southern neighbours - the Chin, Han, Sui and Tang Chinese, and the Koreans and Tibetans.
I have been working on some illustrations showing Tang and Sui Chinese horse tack based on their art, especially the famous sculpted horses. We shall revisit writings of Karl Hrinz Ranitzsch, Albert Dien, Di Cosmo, and other scholars studying Han, Sui and Tang Chinese cavalries (that were not necessarily Han Chinese per se, but included Saka, Tocharians, Xiongnu, Persians, Uigurs, Turks, Tibetans etc).
So let us treat this entry as a introduction to the subject or perhaps rather an announcement. And in order to put some cream on this bland cake :) let me provide you with a link to the fascinating subject regarding my most favorite emperor of the Chinese history - Tang Taizong http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emperor_Taizong_of_Tang - and his six horses.
This link comes via Facebook from Penn State and it is the entire dissertation of Xiugin Zhou on the Tang Taizong mausoleum to himself and his six steeds - tang taizong horses
http://www.facebook.com/note_redirect.php?note_id=115480258202&h=b0fb8c794d67ba8b6b81c9cdfb099f60&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sino-platonic.org%2Fcomplete%2Fspp187_taizong_emperor.pdf

In addition there is this essential work on the Eastern Eurasian horse warriors and their swords during the ancient and early medieval periods - titled 'The Long Sword and Scabbard Slide in Asia'by William Trousdale, profusely illustrated with period images smithsoniananthropologyTrousdale
http://www.sil.si.edu/smithsoniancontributions/anthropology/SC_Abstract.cfm

I hope to start writing soon on these Eastern horses and their riders

ps
for some reason my links did not want to display themselves properly so I am attaching them for a 'copy and paste' 'linking'