Barding
Videos
Barding is body armour for war horses. The practice of armoring horses first developed extensively in antiquity in the Asian kingdoms of Parthia and Pahlava. After the conquests of Alexander the Great
A museum display of a sixteenth-century knight with an armoured horse
Chinese Song dynasty lamellar horse barding as illustrated on Wujing Zongyao
Taq-e Bostan: equestrian statue of Khosrow II as a cataphract
Albrecht May, Master-of-Arms, entering Namur, riding a horse wearing his master Maximilian I's bard in 1480. The bard is crafted by Lorenz Helmschmied. The female figure is likely Mary of Burgundy, the contemporary ruler of the Burgundian State and wife of Maximilian, holding the combined heraldry of Austria and Burgundy.
Cataphract
Videos
A cataphract was a form of armoured heavy cavalry that originated in Central Asia and was fielded in ancient warfare throughout Eurasia and Northern Africa.
Barding
…in the Asian kingdoms of Parthia and Pahlava. After the conquests of Alexander the Great in the 4th century BC it likely made its way - along with cataphract technology - into European military practices via the Seleucid Empire and later the Byzantine Empire. Though its historical roots lie in antiquity in…
Historical reenactment of a Sasanian-era cataphract, complete with a full set of scale armour for the horse. The rider is covered by extensive mail armour.
Close combat between soldiers in cataphract. Orlat plaques, 1st century BC.
Saka/Kangju cataphract armour with neck-guard. 1st century BC. Khalchayan. Museum of Arts of Uzbekistan, nb 40.