"British saddlery and harness - what colour?" Topic

Can I pick your brains, please? I'm doing some British heavy cavalry, but none of my books state definitively what colour the bridles and other straps should be. Black? Brown? What do you think?

According to C.E. Franklin in 'British Napoleonic Uniforms' harness of heavy cavalry was generally brown except for the Life Guards and Horse Guards Blue who used black harness. Referring to the light cavalry he notes that while harness was generally brown, officers tended to prefer black for dress and review. I imagine this might also be true for the heavy cavalry but this is just a supposition on my part.

The heavy cavalry saddle was brown leather and according to regulations the straps should have been black. However, Franklin says the evidence suggests that while the Household Cavalry used black straps the rest of the heavy cavalry adopted brown ones except when in review order where some portraits suggest black was used.

Franklin doesn't specifically state the colour of the girth strap (the one that goes under the horse) but from the illustrations it appears to be made of a grey-brown material.

That's really helpful, thank you very much.

In a fine example of what makes this community so valuable, within minutes of the posting of a question on a relatively obscure subject SJDonovan gives an answer that is concise and to-the-point, couched in elegantly constructed sentences without spelling or syntax errors, and delivered without either pedantry or condescension.

Those of you who don't find this remarkable should pause and think about it again.

Good man, Stephen. Hats off to you.

I too welcome this information and how the gentleman presented it, however, its not a lesson at school in english class.
Info is info and any and all are welcome I'm assuming?
Cheerio

Effective communication implies the meaning is not obscured in poor expression.

We certainly have a number of non-native English speakers on the Naps boards whose input I value. However, I think that in an ideal world writing style should enhance, not obscure the information contained in the post.

That, I think, was all War Artisan meant.

It was, thank you ochoin.

I'm not a fan of formal, academic (read "soulless") English and wouldn't compliment it if I saw it. I do, however, appreciate the clear and direct style with which SJDonovan communicates his ideas.

I certainly wouldn't hold up my own writing style as an example of school-lesson English either, since I have a terrible weakness for convoluted sentence structure and tend to wander off unexpectedly into the ironic or poetic.

Mind you, in fairness it can go the other way Jeff, as a question on one subject, say the Austrians in the Revolutionary period and you can get some one giving an answer about the Prussian army in the Befreiungskrieg and your question is never answered to your satisfaction.

I'm glad it worked in this case.

According to

Mollo, John : Waterloo Uniforms British cavalry

Heavy cavalry saddle according to Prussian cuirassier modell 1796

the stirrup leathers were generally brown, the girth was either leather or webbing.

Bridle – the officers' bridles were usually black leather for dress and brown leather for undress.
With the black bridle the collar was sually made of gold lace, or white buff leather; with the brown bridle, it was usually brown.

Other Ranks Horse Furniture

Saddle – The Household Cavalry had black leather breastplates and cruppers, to go with their dress bridles. Their undress breastpaltes and cruppers were brown, as were thorse of the rest of the heavy cavalry.

Bridle – black leather with white review collars in the Hosehold Cavalry. Brown leather for Household cavalry undress and the rest of the heavy cavalry.

My conclusion – for the 1815 campaign – brown tack for the Household cavalry and not black

This wasn't a question you asked, OP, but if you're doing British cavalry it is worth noting that the Household regiments rode black horses with the fewest white face and leg markings they could contrive. They still do as it happens.

It is often said, rightly, that this kind of practice can't have lasted ling in the field and you'd take a brown remount over a poorer quality black one if you had to. British heavy cavalry were not in the field so often and so long for this practice to fall out of use so if I were painting an 1815 force – or an 1805 one for that matter – I'd observe the black horse convention.

It is sometimes seen as an affectation, but it must actually have been quite useful. If your unit were broken up in combat and the rally were sounded, you looked around for and formed up on people in your uniform on your colour of horse. That it also looks sharper is a helpful bonus. And it does.

Also, don't forget that British line heavy cavalry docked the horses' tails, and guard cavalry did not.

Notice how hoof colour varies with the colour of the sock, even on the blackest horse?

Second row. middle horse. His right front hoof is brown/tan, his left front is black. Why? See the white sock on his lower leg, or lack of it.

So many units claim black horses only. Usually Guard, Household etc. What they mean is NOT bays or chestnuts…….meant for light cavalry.

The real message from that nice pic above, is how big these horses are meant to be (in 2014 I admit). The riders are big lads, but not one has his heels below the horse's belly.