#themagicmelodicmask

first

i have gone and looked at the mounts in the game. interesting choices. the Inquisitor seems to hold their reigns one handed unless they’re Zooming, and the saddles all have the western tall-and-square look. BUT the dracolisks and the harts have the exact same saddle style, which seems impractical, considering their different body shapes and levels of spikiness and whatnot. so we’ll chalk all of this up to bioware not wanting to spend their time on stuff that people won’t examine and over-analyze (because they haven’t met their fans, apparently), and forgive them while we determine those details for ourselves. mostly forgive them.

so the square saddle is the one in the game. dare we say it’s the one Master Dennett gives us? that would make it the Fereldan style. BUT the Western style of saddle developed the big pommel as a place to wrap the lariat once they lassoed the cow or whomstever, and Western saddles have like a lil back rest dude to lean against while you’re cowboying. cowboying is also why Western riders carry the reigns in one hand. the other is for the lasso. it’s all. about. the lasso.

but Ferelden doesn’t have cows. they have druffalo, and you cannot lasso a druffalo. their necks are just too fucking big. so Ferelden doesn’t need lassos. they need fast horses that you can control easily to herd the druffalo by chasing them like giant sheep. be your own sheepdog (tangent!-- mabari are not just good war dogs, they are good druffalo herding dogs because they are a lot like rottweilers, who were bred for herding cows!) . …..anyay a bit of googling brings me to an Australian saddle and two-handed hold on the reigns. sturdier than a typical English saddle, with some nice additions like poleys to help keep you in place when ride up and down steep inclines, like the ones in the Hinterlands and Storm Coast. 

next candidate for Western style: was Dalish cowboys rounding up wild halla? it’s a cool image!

maybe there were some herders in ancient Arlathan, but that doesn’t really fit their modern vibe. also the lassos would get caught in the hallas’ horns. contemporary Dalish would likely use minimal and probably bit-less bridles on their mounts. lighter saddles would probably be preferable for long travel, and specific design would vary by individual clan, but i’m leaning towards something along the lines of a familiar English style saddle, maybe a hunter jumper because they’re more swooshy.

the Orlesians– chevaliers suck, so they got those stupid uncomfortable saddles that real knights used in the 1400s. wooden and metal jousting saddles all day every day for those jerks.

this is the part where i stopped looking for the saddle that matched the culture and started being a history nerd.

BECAUSE you simply can’t talk about horses without talking about the Mongols and the Eurasian Steppes! they are the originals!

but they aren’t really among the aesthetic inspirations of any of the groups in Thedas, at least according to the wog/developer talk that i’ve seen.

BUT, you know what area we don’t know much about, a place with mountains, steppes, and land not suitable for heavy agrarian work, thanks to the Blights? the Anderfels! i know there’s horses in the Anderfels because one of the mounts is named that.

speaking of pre-modern saddles, the Tevinter Imperium has aesthetic connections to the Roman Empire, so i found some historical reenactors on google who ride horses like Romans. the Roman saddle is also nice and wide, which would provide protection from dracolisk spikes, which are probably almost as big a danger for the Vint cavalry as their actual enemies.

Antiva shall be the home of one of my childhood obsessions– the Real Escuela Andaluza del Arte Ecuestre, home of the dancing flyboys. (if i googled correctly) the performers at the Real Escuela use a zaldi dessage saddle, which keeps your legs locked in real tight. good for drama.

Antivan leather, naturally, makes better saddles than any other material. i think sleek design would be a good chance for craftspeople to show off skill in construction and build, and Antivan saddles wouldn’t be heavily deccorated

Rivan, meanwhile, uses decoration like jewelry and tattoos as mark of social standing (according to the DA wiki) so that would extend to their tack as well, i’m sure.

i think this is where i’m locating western-style saddles. the greater surface area allows for greater amounts of decoration. this western show saddle might be a basic, sedate, middle class Rivani piece:

last but not least, Qunari style tack would be an aesthetic cousin to Rivani. their favorite horse, the Asaarash, is descended from Rivani stock. now, there is an image of Qunari horse armor in Inquisition, thanks to the Spoils of the Qun dlc BUT it’s the exact same saddle as all the other horses. that’s dumb.

so what should they put on their horses along with all that heavy armor? a western endurance saddle, which is lightweight but sturdy. they might square the corners off a bit since the Qun is all about that diamond motif but that’s just the for the aesthetic. functionally, i think they’d lean away from extraneous additions.

anyway that’s some ideas i’ve come up with since you sent this ask in June or something!