Australian Stock Saddle and 1840s colony at al

Salvete Omnes,
a 'little' entry  on the fine saddles from Down Under and 1840s Australian colony.
many years ago I used to to own two different Australian saddles, one with a horn and one without. (photos for reference only, they do not represent my old saddles)

So perusing the net I went into the Wiki Commons collections and found some historic photos of the Australian stock saddle and some more current versions.
 
I liked riding in these saddles, they were great and comfortable for the horse and I, just eventually I went into riding in the Western and McClellans saddles and sold off my Australians.

 Wiki Commons has some old photos so let me corral the here for our enjoyment and study

 
 Now let us turn to some historical XIX century accounts and imagery

Looking back into the Australian colonial past in January 1849Ad issue of Sidney's Emigrant Journal advised a gentleman for the voyage in Australian bush:
[..]2 pairs of moleskin trousers, strapped inside all the way down, 4 pairs of moleskin trousers, 12 Florentine shirts, 6 pairs of boots, strong Wellingtons or ankle-jacks, 1 monkey jacket, 2 shooting coats, 1 drab coat (loose made), a pari or two of the best spurs (plated), 12 coarse silk pocket handkerchiefs, a good head-stall snuffle bridle - the saddle had better be brought in the colony, also saddle-bag.
A light (7 lbs) double barrelled gun, made strong in the stock, with swivels for sling, a rifle, double-barrelled pistols, an holsters, powder and shot - these things had better be packed in a case lined with tin or zinc.[...]
Ladies' outfits must be on the same scale as gentlemen's (page 111).
 
 So it was perhaps that good riding saddles were not yet made in the colony, or British gentlefolks preferred their own well made London saddles.
Speaking about the ladies and working women in 1840s Australia around Sidney  - the same Journal printed sort of advice:
Labourers wives ride in drays, unless their husbands can afford a horse[...]Gentlemen going beyond Bathurst, to which there is a coach, generally drive their wives in tandems. You can tandem through the bush. The country is generally dry, so the roads are not wanted;  but a bushman's wife should be a good horsewoman, and be able to travel  all over the colony with a side-saddle and saddle-bags. [...] 
 
Where there are roads in the settled districts, horse teams are in favor, but two-wheeled drays are more handy to drag down and up gullies than four wheels. [..] A fine lady would be very useful but a farmer;s daughter, accustomed to ride Dobbin to market, would be a great comfort too. 
 
 a word or two about the 1840s horses, - from one called The Bushman or the settler or squatter in the colony made a long trip and wrote about it (SEJ, p123)-


''The horse ridden on this occasion was a thorough-bred of the Whisker blood. Thorough-breds are found the best for Australian work, except for stockmen's use in riding after cattle—they require a small cobby nag that will turn on a cabbage leaf, and generally the ugliest horses in a herd are cast aside for their use. There is a good deal of Arab blood in the colony, and the cross makes fine hacks, with good temper; but English blood stallions are the safest to breed om to secure saleable colts.''

 
  the XIX century Australian horses and stockmen topic etc  to be continued
Valete

Metacom aka King Philip war from Infort editions

Salvete Omnes,

 some self promotion:
next month another illustration of mine that will be published on the cover of the new Polish history book telling the story of the King Philip war 1675-8 in New England.
 "Wojna »króla Filipa« 1675-1676"- by Rafał T. Czarniecki. I have not read the book yet.

again I used MyPaint, Gimp & Krita

 I consulted on the subject of with some historians and enthusiast from the States and from Latvia - thank you Yuriy - grouped under  King Philip's War forum on Facebook

some sketches


 

książka będzie do zakupienia tutaj ..
Valete

Polish Cavalry - 1937 - Witczak-Witaczynski's photos

Salvete Omnes,
 for a good morning - 2nd Polish Republic Polish cavalry of the 2nd Cavalry Division during 1937AD - a glimpse of the world about to be gone forever -
 the forest of lances with pennons - 3000 thousand years of our Eurasian cavalry was about to close during the 1939-45 war.



 


Valete
ps
I am reading the excellent work on the American saddle by  Ken R. Knopp - soon more about it.

Federal Ranger Saddle - article link

Salvete Omnes,
today a little Americana - via a linked article
I came across this very interesting article on the very rare American saddle called the  federal ranger saddle or simply put a Spanish American saddle that was order by the federal government for the US cavalry, then  made, fitted with extras for cavalry use as M1859 McClellan saddle pattern and used during the American Civil War.
 
And in order to stay in the spirit of the times let me bring to your attention some art by the eyewitness to the great American war maestro Edwin Forbes - here are his studies of the  great army.


 

 

 




Valete

ps
nota bene - The photographic history of the Civil War - in ten volumes (1911) - for perusing at leisure

ROßFECHTEN SYMPOSIUM 2019 - Arne Koets et company video

Salvete Omnes,
just a video link -  ROßFECHTEN SYMPOSIUM 2019 - the After Movie- beautifully done presentation of enthusiasts, great riders and horses , and with rather - ;) great musical score -  congrats Arne Koets and company.
 
 nota bene, watching the video I noticed various swords and sabres, and I saw there the   Polish training swords go-now - I use them too - 
this is wonderful stuff, perhaps there will be more videos.. 
Valete

Lorenzo Veneziano - horses and knights

Salvete Omnes,
Spring is around us, and where is the global warming or climate change? It has been cold and cold.
anyway, to warm up the historical equestrianism a bit - maestro Lorenzo Veneziano and the horses and  horsemen in his art :
first this little picture, the triptych from 1370sAD - Museo Tyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid, Spain -on the right side of the triptych there is a horseman with his grey steed, but owing to the small size of the picture I cannot see much there

the second image, a predella, from the Staatliche Museum in Berlin shows  Conversion of Saint Paul, is more populated, with 7 horses and riders, and due to the proper size for more investigative approach  appears quite rich in detail.




the center figure - of Saint Paul the Apostle - the knight soon to become saint Paul carries a great sword, and a combination of cuir-bouilli (hardened leather) armor that for the last quarter of the XIV c. appear to have been purposefully antiquated as already the Italian armor industries were the most advanced in Christian Europe.

 the red leather saddle is interesting,as with its low pommel and cantle appears to portray a riding knightly saddle (note the saddle skirts and cinch - it is a leather one?), but the gray  horse (shod with horse shoes), with its tied tail and short mane and tied up forelock, perhaps is supposed to represent  a dextrarius and not a palfrey. Horse tack is rich in beautiful vermillion red, the bridle has a curb-bit with a single set of reins.
the figures on the left
we see two figures on the left, one sorrel horse with a long- shanked curb-bit hanging from its bridle and dark blue tack,  behind him(presumably the armed men rode male horses) a gray horse with red tack - both horses appear collected.

 the horses on  the right - the brown horse with another set of rich red horse tack, also a curb-bit and studded crouper and breastplate. The saddle with long skirts appears to have been portrayed with larger pommel and cantle than that of Saint Paul. There are three more horses, seen in less detail - gray, bay, and dark brown,



 So in this little predella we get a glimpse of the rich equestrian  life of the northern, Venetian?,  Italian nobility.
Valete

William Tylee Ranney - the West of the 1840s

Salvete Omnes,
I have bought and waiting for this book to arrive -   Forging an American Identity: The Art of William Ranney, With a Catalogue of His Works.
 I am looking forward to read it, to study and to copy some of the work by maestro Ranney, who was a soldier - sort of like our Polish XVI-XVIII century noblemen - volunteer in the Texas revolution.
There are some of his painting from wiki commons and The Atheneuem ..


 

 

 






also he was a historical painter, especially the American Revolution
eg
Ranney's vision of the Cowpens battle


Gen. George Washington - detail from the work titled The Battle of Princeton

 
 very interesting detail from a great painting of the Revolutionary War showing Marion crossing the Pee Dee


nota bene one of my most favorite Western giants - Kit Carson



and trappers

Valete

Jacob van Loo's black horse

Salvete Omnes,
Spring is in full swing, so off to some green pastures we go -
 for example let us visit this canvass by Jacob van Loo,

This Golden Age Dutch master, and father of many children (and the patriarch of painters' dynasty of painters), while drinking at the tavern had gotten into altercation with one Hendrik Breda whom  he had stabbed  so successfully that the victim died.
Below one of his paintings showing a bucolic scene at a tavern or inn. All men carried weapons, swords and daggers, so any serious altercations could have turned into violent brawls with wounded etc.

Master Jacob, being in danger of getting his justice at the gallows in return for his felonious deed,  had to hastily abscond from the Dutch Republic's justice and quit the realm.  Fleeing in this  rather inglorious manner, being condemned to death in absentia and banishment, he successfully changed his family's residence from Amsterdam of Netherlands to Paris, the capital of then still very slowly rising sun of king Louis Bourbon or Louis XIV Kingdom of France. In Paris he became a popular painter and in 1663 AD the member of the Royal Academy.
ad rem, the horse in  question, with his owner's family ( circa AD 1640 - the Meebeeck Cruywagen family portrait with a black horse in front of their country home,  apparently family portraits were popular in the XVII century Netherlands - eg a series of articles on the subejct ) :

and the black horse
 
his head with bridle


the bridle has some unusual strap arrangement. Namely the cheekpiece has  one large shiny buckle low immediately next to the curb-bit and then another one above the browband, on the crownpiece, and the second buckle for the throatlatch.  Note that it is not clear if this bridle has a browband at all.

Valete

Roman saddle from Aegyptus frontier

Salvate Omnes,
perusing the Wiki Commons I came across this very interesting artefact from the Oriental Institute Museum, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA.
It comes from the Qustul site in southern Egypt and is dated to the last quarter of the IV century AD. This was the frontier of the Roman Aegyptus and Meroe/Kush//Nobadia of the Nile Valley.

also a quiver

 

some further visual aids regarding the Roman Aegyptus and Nubia and the Nile


 

 

 

 



 
The ancient Egyptian sanctuary of Isis and Roman stronghold of the island of Philae, situated within the rapids of the Nile known as the 1st Cataract (also the other famous fortresses of Elefantina and Talmis), on the Roman southern frontier and where traditional ancient Egypt frontier was set between Egypt and Nubia, where the early I century Ad Roman fortress at Primis (Qasr Ibrim) lay within the land of  Dodekaschoenos  that traditionally was the buffer zone between the Ptolemaic Egypt, later  Roman Aegypt and Meroe/Nubia/Nobadia and raided by the Blemmye( the Eastern desert nomads and skilled raiders - ancient Arab desert dwellers - riding as far north as the famous Wadi Hammamat spice and silk trade and gold mining route between the Nile and the Red Sea ports). South of the Roman frontier on the Nile sat Faras (ancient Pachoras) that was the capital of the ancient Kingdom of Meroe (famous for the war  its queen Amanirenas waged against the Augustus praefect of Egypt Gaius Petronius), and after 350AD was the capital of the Christian kingdom of Nobadia/Noubadia, and later of the medieval Christian Makuria( it was a Christian state  until it had fallen victim to the Islamic conquest in the XIV century AD).
The area was the subject of military expeditions during the later Empire, including one by Diocletian. During the later Roman rule in Egypt the region became Christian and resisted Saracen invasions for many centuries to come.
Presently Faras is under the water of the Aswan Dam and it was many archaeologist teams from Europe and the US who helped to save many of the objects from the water-induced destruction. Polish archaeologist under prof. Michalowski   helped to save some of the amazing artefacts from Faras - today some of the frescoes and other treasures from the Faras Cathedral can be seen at the Warsaw National Museum special Faras section. I had the pleasure to walk these galleries with the distinguished  members of the Siedlce conference in 2016.
Valete