Horse Barding Types and Styles During the Middle Ages

 

This is an article I wrote in 2009 about the different types of "barding" used on horses in the Middle Ages.  This was submitted as part of the documentation for one of my entries into Æthelmearc's largest Arts & Sciences (A&S) competition known as the Ice Dragon Pentathlon. The exhibit contained several miniature models of horses displaying barding styles. These miniatures were subsequently used as teaching aids in classes I have taught on barding. (This includes a class taught at the Pennsic War in 2009.) In the SCA, the term "barding" has been commonly used to denote the special style of harness embellishments or decorative coverings used on medieval horses.  A more appropriate term for the long fabric coverings could be "caparisons" or "trappers." For simplicity, this article uses the term "barding."

INTRODUCTION:

A variety of barding types have been used during in the Middle Ages for an equal variety of reasons. Some barding was strictly ornamental, while other styles served as protection for the horse. Styles also varied from country to country. This paper and exhibit will attempt to introduce these basic styles and variations.

EUROPEAN STYLES:

European styles consisted of full barding, blanket barding and strap barding.  Strap barding was prevalent throughout the period. This is one of the earliest type of barding seen in period. Byzantine and Carolingian examples include this type of barding.[1]  Horses depicted in the Bayeux Tapestry are seen wearing very simple strap barding, most consisting only of a breast plate. This type of barding was often seen on the heavy warhorses referred to as destriers. Decorative, yet functional, it helped to keep the saddle in place during the maneuvers of war. Examples of strap barding used at war are included in the source, The Horse Through Fifty Centuries of Civilization.[2]  Strap barding was also most commonly seen on the hunt, as this style provided security of seat, but did not hinder the horse while passing through brush and forest, or overheat a running horse as the  heavy cloth seen in full barding might.

As indicated in the source,  Medieval Costume, Armor and Weapons, these straps were used to prevent the saddle from slipping forwards or backwards with the movement of the horse. The saddle was fitted with a crupper (a strap that runs from the saddle back around the tail to keep the saddle from sliding forward) and breast-straps (a strap that keeps the saddle from slipping back), which were held in place by a whole system of large and small straps, some of which were very ornamental. The trappings were often embossed in various ways and ornamented with metal tacks and discs; in color they nearly always harmonized with the colors of the saddle.[3]

Examples of simple barding can be found in the source, Medieval Costume, Armor and Weapons. [4]  The Horse Through Fifty Centuries of Civilization, contains a wonderful example of highly embellished barding in the work, Journey of the Magi to Jerusalem.  While the intended subject of the artwork is out of period, the artist included the horse trappings used in his current 15th Century. 



Figure 1. This example is taken from Wagner, Drobna, and Durdiks Medieval Costume, Armor and Weapons.5

The source, The Medieval Horse and its Equipment 1150‑1450, contains an extensive discussion of the various ornaments that were applied to horse tack and harness, their placement and type.[6] This research is based on the discoveries of digs near and in London, England.

Full barding, or a caparison, was used to completely cover the horse. This long flowing type of barding included a long saddle blanket as well as a hood for the neck and head, and shoulder coverings. This style of barding was most often seen in use during war and in the Tournaments of the 12th through 14th Centuries. This barding is the type most people think about when picturing a knight riding at Tournament. This barding was worn by the heavy warhorses, and the destriers.

The bottoms of the cloth were often so long that they reached to the fetlocks (the joint above the foot or hoof of the horse) and were decorated in a variety of ways and dagged or perforated in various shapes and patterns.[7] An example of extremely long caparisons can be found in the source, A Chronicle History of Knights by Andrea Hopkins (p. 11) in the illustration of the Jousts of St Inglevert, which took place in May of 1390. (This work is featured in Jean Froissart's Chronicles which contains many examples of barding which is often referenced by researchers.) These caparisons are so long that they actually drag upon the ground like a noble woman's gown. 

Figure 2. Taken from Barber and Barkers Tournaments, p 55.

Coloring and decoration was commonly seen throughout the period in most regions of Europe. Full barding was often decorated with the riders heraldic arms as an aid in identification of the mounted warrior. Examples include barding consisting of the contrasting colors of a warrior's heraldry as well as patches of the heraldic device sewn onto the barding. Tournaments contains various examples of both styles.[8] 

Sometimes these cloths were decorated with bells. The source, The Medieval Warrior by Paul LaCroix and Walter Clifford Meller describes the use of bells.[9] The bells worn on the horse cloth were of two different shapes and were called belfries. These rows of bells were later replaced with embroidery depicting bells.

Examples of Full barding can be found in the source, Medieval Costume, Armor and Weapons.[10]  Various depictions of barding worn during war can be found in the source, Battles of the Medieval World, 1000‑1500 by Devries, Doughtery, Dickie, Jestice and Jorgensen.[11]

Figure 3, which is from Tournaments.

Blanket barding was popular throughout period. This type of barding served as decoration, and was often an embellishment of the saddle blanket protecting the horses back from the saddle and tack. Often decorated with trim, tassels, or other ornamentation, this was common for the nobility traveling on their finer bred and lighter horses, called palfreys. Examples of Blanket barding can be found in the source, Medieval Costume, Armor and Weapons[12] and Tournaments.[13] 

ASIAN STYLES:

The Japanese style of barding consisted of elaborate rope harnessing embellished with fringes and tassels. This type of barding is in keeping with the Japanese string arts and traditional of tying rope and cloth. Loose and flowing but not covering the horse entirely, this type of barding would have been easier for a horse to wear in warmer climates and during the heat of combat.  


 Figure 4, from Sharpe's Samurai Leaders From the Tenth to the Nineteenth Century, p 153.[14]

The source, Samurai Leaders contains numerous woodcut paintings depicting horses and decorative barding in use throughout the period. The source  Horses in Japan details the history of the horse in Japan and contains numerous drawings and paintings of horses in the feudal period.[15]

Arabic styles were designed to ensure the horse was not over-heated in the hot climate of the Desert, but providing some decoration through the use of brocaded cloth and tassels. The flavor of their culture is well expressed through the horse furniture of the time. Examples of arabic barding can be found in Hyland's The Medieval Warhorse, From Byzantium to the Crusades.The source, Asil Arabians, The Noble Arabian Horses contains numerous examples of Arabian saddlery, tack and barding styles.18  This book details the bloodlines and culture of the Asil purebred Arabian horse, and contains many historical artworks depicting Arabian horses in use during the medieval period.

Figure 5, from Olms Asil Arabians, frontpiece.

Figure 6 depicting Mongol horse and equipment.

Mongol barding was simple and functional, mostly of the strap barding style. It provided support for the tack and some amount of decoration through beading and tassels. Examples are found in the source Battles of the Medieval World, 1000‑1500 and The Horse Through Fifty Centuries of Civilization [16] Lamellar plates of armor were also used. A set of this type of armor is found at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
While armor, bridles and saddlery are not the subject of this study, the bridle styles used in the exhibit pieces come from the source, Medieval Costume, Armor and Weapons ( Part IX, Plates 26-32).

CONCLUSION:

Barding for horses served various functions, and were of a variety of styles. The exhibit pieces displayed represent the primary variations of barding in use during the Middle Ages. Simple barding which would not get caught in harness, armor or brush was most often found in the hunt field or woods and on the actual battlefield. More elaborate styles were found on the Tournament field, especially in later period. By the 14th Century, armor styles and barding/caparisons became very elaborate or ornate. Barding was used to cover the horse for protection from tack, sun and heat, as well as providing some protection against weapons. The most important use of barding, though, was for identification of the mounted rider. Thus we see simple heraldic displays as well as more elaborate caparisons. The latter were reserved for the Tournament field, and consisted of the highest quality materials, such as silk. These heraldic caparisons became synonymous with the Knight at Tournament.

Endnotes:

1. Anthony Austen Dent.  The Horse Through Fifty Centuries of Civilization.( NY: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1974) 96.

2. Dent, The Horse Through Fifty Centuries.  52, 53, 154, 170-1, 174, 187.

3. Wagner, Drobna, and Durdik. Medieval Costume, Armor and Weapons (NY: Dover Publications, Inc, 2000) 65.
4. Wagner.  Medieval Costume. Part VI, Plates 14, 15; Part VIII, Plate 8; Part IX, plates 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 16, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23)  More embellished styles of strap barding are to be found in  Part IX, Plates 2, 3, 4, 9, 10, 11, 12, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20.
5. Wagner. Medieval Costume. Part IX, Plate 11-2.
6. John Clark, ed.  The Medieval Horse and its Equipment 1150-1450. (Woodbridge: Museum of London, 1995) 61-71.
7. Wagner, Medieval Costume. 65.
8. Richard Barber  & Juliet Barker.  Tournaments, Jousts, Chivalry and Pageants in the Middle Ages.  (Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 2000) 52, 53, 55, 59, 64, 66, 67, 150, 174-5.
9. Paul LaCroix and Walter Clifford Meller.  The Medieval Warrior.  (NY: BCL Press/Book Creation, LLC, 2002)  81-2.
10. Wagner.  Medieval Costume. Part IX, Plates 6, 14.
11. Devries, Doughtery, Dickie, Jestice and Jorgensen.  Battles of the Medieval World, 1000‑1500. (NY:  Amber Books, Ltd, 2006).
12. Wagner.  Medieval Costume. Part IX, Plates 4, 6, 13.
13. Barber and Barker, Tournaments. 126.
14. Michael Sharpe.  Samurai Leaders From the Tenth to the Nineteenth Century (NY: Compendium Pub. Ltd, 2008). 100+.
15. Vivienne Kenrick.  Horses in Japan.(London: J.A. Allen & Co., 1964)
16. Dent, The Horse Through Fifty Centuries. 106, 186 and Battles of the Medieval World, 91-2.

SOURCES:

Ayton, Andrew. Knights and Warhorses: Military Service and the English Aristocracy under Edward III. Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 1994.
Barber , Richard & Juliet Barker. Tournaments: Jousts, Chivalry and Pageants in the Middle Ages, Woodbridge: The Boydell Press,2000.
Clark, John ed. The Medieval Horse and its Equipment, c. 1150-c.1450. NY:Woodbridge: Museum of London, 1995.
Clephan, R Coltman. The Medieval Tournament. NY: Dover Publications, Inc, 1995.
Dent, Anthony Austen. The Horse Through Fifty Centuries of Civilization. NY: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1974.
Devries, Doughtery, Dickie, Jestice and Jorgensen. Battles of the Medieval World, 1000-1500. NY: Amber Books, Ltd, 2006.
Eve, George W. Decorative Heraldry: A Practical Handbook of Its Artistic Treatment.
G. Bell & sons, 1908 (digitized on GoogleBooks, Original from the University of California, Digitized Nov 29, 2007, available at <http://books.google.com/books?id=6MBHAAAAIAAJ&q=surcoat>)
Hopkins, Andrea. A Chronicle History of Knights. NY: Barnes and Nobles Books, 2004.
Hyland, Ann. The Medieval Warhorse: From Byzantium to the Crusades. London: Grange Books, 1994.
LaCroix, Paul and Walter Clifford Meller. The Medieval Warrior. NY: CL Press/Book Creation, LLC, 2002.
Kenrick, Vivienne. Horses in Japan. London: J.A. Allen & Co., 1964.
Muhlberger, Steven. Jousts and Tournaments: Charny and The Rules for Chivalric Sport in Fourteenth-Century France. Union City, CA: The Chivalry Bookshelf, 2002.
Olms, W Georg, ed. Asil Arabians, The Noble Arabian Horses, Oiartzun, Spain: KSG-DANONA, 2000.
Oakeshott, Ewart. A Knight and His Horse. Chester Springs, PA: Dufour, Inc, 1962.
Pyhrr, LaRocca, and Breiding. The Armored Horse in Europe, 1480-1620. NY: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2005.
Sharpe, Michael. Samurai Leaders From the Tenth to the Nineteenth Century. NY: Compendium Pub. Ltd, 2008.
Turnbull, Stephen. Samurai, The World of the Warrior. Oxford: Osprey Publishing Ltd, 2003.
Wagner, Drobna, and Durdik. Medieval Costume, Armor and Weapons. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, Inc, 2000.
Website: Atlantian MOAS site (links), Jan 2009, <http://moas.atlantia.sca.org/wsnlinks/index.php?action=displaycat&catid=56>
Website Barding article, Jan 2009, <http://ilaria.veltri.tripod.com/overviewbards.html>.
Website on Period stitches, Jan 2009,<http://jauncourt.i8.com/stitches.htm>
( referenced information on running Stitch, back stitch, and over-stitched or over-sewn, as well as Hem treatments includingrunning, whip stitch)
Website on Split stitching, Jan 2009, http://www.bayrose.org/wkneedle/Articles/split_stitch.html