Caparison
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A caparison is a cloth covering laid over a horse or other animal for protection and decoration. In modern times, they are used mainly in parades and for historical reenactments. A similar term is hor
The Dukes of Brittany (left) and Bourbon on caparisoned horses at a tournament fight (1460s), from Le Livre des tournois by Barthélemy d'Eyck
Picador on a caparisoned horse at a bullfight
A decorated Indian elephant carrying a howdah during a fair in Jaipur, India
Nettipattam on a Caparison elephant
Barding
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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
Caparison
…Heliodorus from a planned assault on the Jewish temple treasury in Jerusalem. In the Middle Ages, caparisons were part of the horse armour known as barding, which was worn during battle and tournaments. They were adopted in the twelfth century in response to conditions of campaigning in the Crusades, where…
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.