"British horse furnishihings." Topic

I just brought out some British Dragoons to paint for Spain and when I opened my Osprey book on British heavy cavalry, there was not one picture of a horse. The only other sources I have found all refer to Waterloo, nothing on Spain. Anyone know of a good source for this or are these sources good for Spain as well as Waterloo? I know the British Army made a lot of changes in uniforms between the two campaigns so I'm skeptical.

British Napoleonic Uniforms by C E Franklin, History Press, 2008 has a seven page chapter on cavalry harness and horse furniture (it is a beautiful book!). There isn't much on changes for heavy cavalry other than the gradual introduction of the valise, with no detail on dates except that the 6th Dragoons adopted it after 1815, and heavy cavalry started to adopt square valises after 1812. The plate on page 35 shows shabraques and harness for 3rd Dragoons c1800, 1nd Dragoons before 1811, 1st Dragoon Guards c1813 and 6th Dragoons c1814.

traveller

Campaign horse furnishings were usually a horse blanket under the saddle, a rolled great coat/blanket in front and a valise behind.
Something like this:

What horse furnishings do the figures have and what unit are you doing?

One of my biggest beefs with Osprey – showing uniforms in a vacuum. No equipment, no horse furniture. They are often literally about uniforms, and not an inch farther.

Hello Camcleod:

I'm doing the 1st Dragoons and then will do the 3rd Guard Dragoons in 15mm.

The dragoons I'm working on have the furnishings shown in your picture, but they are wearing bicornes and not helmets and knee high boots, so they are in an earlier uniform. Your picture matches what I have found, but as I said my resources are for dragoons during the Waterloo Campaign.

As far as I can tell, saddle blankets were blue with a border strip of either gold or silver. I suspect the stripe matches the lacing on the uniform.

Hello John:

I will try to seek out C E Franklin's book. I'm on a budget, so I may not be able to afford it. The Milwaukee Library may have it. They have an excellent reference section. They have the entire set of Knotel prints. Naturally this rare item is not allowed to leave the building. Many a day I have visited to make a copies from this collection. Now Knotel is available on the internet, but before that, it was a blessing.

Thanks to both for your responses.

Yes Crispy, I was disappointed to discover Ospray had ignored having any pictures of horses completely

I had a quick look through my copy of CE Franklin's book as well (and agree with John that it is worth every cent) and he has a picture of a trooper's furniture for 1st Dragoons circa 1813, which is dark blue with a yellow-looking border (which could presumably be gold for the officers), and a blue valise with yellow trim.

There is a double-reversed royal cipher on the corner of the shabraque and the letters KDG arranged in a triangle immediately below, with the same on the holster covers.

The shabraque itself is a smaller square which covers only the part of the horse from the saddle backwards, rather than the longer square of say 4th dragoons which sits underneath the saddle itself and extends backwards.

His picture of the 3rd circa 1800 is pretty much the same, but with a red blanket roll instead of a valise. In both cases the reins are of a lighter brown leather with brass buckles and a silver bit.

Perhaps one day Osprey will add "Horse furniture of the British dragoons" to their elite series but, until then, CE Franklin is my go-to book for anything related to the British army of the Napoleonic period. I got my off Amazon and still consider it to be one of the best purchases I have made.

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Paul :)

Osprey MAA 138 British Cavalry Equipment 1800-1941 is packed with all the detailed information you would need- basically the definitive modern accessible work on the subject. Some typically ill informed and unfair criticisms of Osprey here……..

Seneffe, let me agree with you. Osprey is a marvellous resource at a relatively cheap price. For about the cost of a decent bottle of wine (allowing for UK taxation), you can get a lot on Guard Lancers whether Polish or Dutch, Scouts or Honor Garde etc etc……

It is too easy now to download the images and never buy the books. They vary in quality, but, with research, you can take them or leave them. I want more on uniforms in the publications, most want more on units' histories, wargamers want to know about units' tactics……….

I still think they are a good compromise. But I do wonder how they will survive in this Internet age, where copyright seems to mean nothing.

I agree with Seneffe – check out the Osprey – he mentioned