"Barded horses? A question" Topic

Just wondering…if a heavily barded horse, to be clear,one with a metal coat if armour.eg a 1500s gendarmes horse.was to become injured or exhausted.and slump down into a kneeling position,would the armour covering it remain in an upright position?
Hope that makes some sense…and therefore would the knight remain in a seated position?
Thanks all
John

Just wondering…if a heavily barded horse, to be clear,one with a metal coat if armour.eg a 1500s gendarmes horse.was to become injured or exhausted.and slump down into a kneeling position,would the armour covering it remain in an upright position?
Hope that makes some sense…and therefore would the knight remain in a seated position?
Thanks all
John

Depending upon the armor styles and coverage, as well as the actions of the horse, I suspect that is possible.

I can't say for sure though, and the styles of metal armor vary greatly, so…….

I would think not as I imagine there would be one or two straps underneath the horse to hold the armor in place, like the cinch on a saddle.

Jim

Not overly familiar with horse trappings…I guess I was wondering if the horse would be "suspended " under the metal armour with the bottom edge of the armour resting on the ground…

Late medieval/Renaissance horse armour consisted of a series of plates, connected together with leather or cloth. This provided a degree of flexibility to allow the horse to turn. Therefore it is unlikley to stay rigidly together if the horse is not able to support the weight.
In addition, if you look at photos of historical examples, the armour normally stops just above the underside of the horses body, so if the horse slumped down, exhausted onto it's knees, the armour wouldn't touch the ground.
Finally, if the horse was moving when this happened, there is a lot of weight high up which would have a tendency to cause the horse to topple over if it came down, dumping the rider off.
Oh yes, the riders feet would also project below the horses belly, so unless he is a bit of an acrobat, when the horse falls, his feet would hit the ground, probably at different times which would all help to propel him off the horse.

Well that's the end of that scenario idea…cheers DT

I always wondered if there was a traffic in horse bardings after a battle.

Unlikely. Note that when Maximilian ordered horse armour he orderd 100 sets of "buffalo leather". Not sure though wether this would form the base for a metal plating or be used on its own. I doubt that it was rigid enough to keep the body upright, and I have never seen nor heard of any such image.