How Did We Get Here?

Panels, again!!

As a business we seem to spend half our time thinking about, talking about and indeed working on panels! And if you think about it, being half of the saddle; it makes sense.

So, here is another blog delving a little deeper into the history of panels the who, what, where, when & Why's.

Genesis

In the beginning the saddle maker created the tree and the pad. You may remember our friends the Scythians from our last blog. Skilled horse back warriors accredited for pioneering the concept of the saddle. This is interesting for two reasons: the first being the idea of creating a solid structure for rider comfort combined with an animal hair stuffed pad for horse comfort. And secondly being the fact that their prowess as mounted warriors drove them to invent a solution to help keep their riders on top of their mounts during long rides and in battle, this military theme follows the saddle through out history.

We have the military to thank for much of our equine equipment today. Military saddles them self being ingeniously engineered and made, but to keep this to a blog and not a book I will primarily focus on saddles for pleasure and sport.

Saddle rumoured to belong to Queen Elizabeth the 1st

The 'rider part' and 'padded part' for the horse continued to be the norm for saddles right from the Roman era, through the Middle Ages and into the Tudor and Stewart periods. You can see above this Tudor saddle with buckle attachments for pads and blankets.

Exodus

Now these are the names of the panel.

We're going to fast forward two thousand centuries now to the 18th centuary and the invention of what we will call the "modern" saddle. This is a saddle that we would recognise today, made from leather with a wooden tree, a metal head plate, and stirrup bars, a flat seat for the rider to sit on and leather saddle flaps for the riders leg.

This is around the time frame that we begin to see the panel come into it's own. 1000's of patents were registered on saddle design, from safety features to ventilation channels for cooling the horses back. With horses being the only form of transport for war, business and pleasure, we see a boom in innovation to keep the horse in full working order. Thus begins our modern panels origin story.

The Full Panel

We will start with, the oldest of the "modern" panel. This panel has a large surface baring area and features 'barring' or 'quilting' on the sweatflap area of the panel. This panel was popularised during the early and mid 19th century, the idea behind the full panel a throw back to earlier saddles where the horses back was protected from the structural part of the saddle with blankets, the blankets then being attached to the main structure and thus becoming a part of the saddle its self.

If properly made the stitched area of the panel should not be too bulky, however, this panel can by modern standards, be considered quite thick and does not offer the most optimal close contact feel. It is said that the popularisation of Polo in England was instrumental in removing the bottom of the full panel to give the rider greater feel and ability to apply new at the time aids to the horse in a fast paced sporting environment.

Full or Barred panel underside

"Half" Panel

Also known as the "Rugby" "Owen" or "Whippy" panel after the firms that used them so frequently. This panel allows close contact of the leg and excellent shoulder freedom for big moving and big shouldered horses. The Half panel is still popular today amongst polo riders and you will see many pony or wider horses saddles featuring them for this reason.

As riding styles changed and tree shapes changed into deeper seats and specified for different discipline the panel evolved again. With the deeper seated trees often having more rock or being more curved in shape than traditional older trees came the next evolution in panel technology.

The photos below show an early 1900's Owen & co Saddle featuring a flocked half panel. You can see the quilted area has been replaced with a single solid leather sweatflap.

Sweat Flap on Early 1900's Owen & co Saddle

Underside of Owen & co Saddle.

Saumur & Continental Panels

Also known as "French" and "Dropped" panels respectively. The Saumur panel originates from the French equitation school, this panel is narrower in the waist area and features legs down the front of the saddle that featured additional rolls to offer some knee support to the rider. The Continental panel is similar but with the addition of a roll at the back of the panel, this roll was not intended for leg support but to stop the straps of the saddle sliding out the back. Incidentally making this panel resemble its original counterpart: the Full Panel, but a much more refined version.

Both of these panels have evolved slightly over time, some modern trees becoming even more curved meant that the legs at the front of the panel and the back part of the panel have been adapted to incorporate ever bigger gussets, allowing a multitude of different fitting options to balance the tree they support.

The saddle below shows a Flocked French panel on a Champion & Wilton saddle. The company began trading in 1786 in London, our example is from the turn of the last century.

Diagrams from E. Hartley Edwards "Saddlery" 1963

Champion & Wilton Flocked French Panel underside

Champion & Wilton Flocked French Panel & Sweatflap. The leg of the panel serving as knee support for the rider and also the prevention of straps sliding forwards.

Flocking

Since the development of the panel as an integral part of the saddle a number of materials have been used in the effort to save the horse from becoming sore backed.

Amongst these efforts we see the first edition of what we today would term a foam panel. Messrs Illsley of Oakham first introduced & popularised the Sorbo-Rubber panel pre World Wars. The use of rubbers in saddles declined during the wars due to most industries giving over to the war effort.

You will often find saddles stuffed with what ever material was available at the time. Many 19th century saddles are stuffed with horse hair, this would have been cheap and widely available to saddle makers of the day. Horse hair actually worked very well as soft and pliable stuffing, cushions, sofas and even mattresses where made up of horse hair in this period.

Sheeps wool has been used for stuffing not only the panels of saddles but also the bellies, seats and even knee rolls since the invention of the modern saddle (although today the process has been refined and modernised.) There are many different wools available, these days mainly categorised into White Wool, Brown Jacobs Wool and Synthetic Wool. Each have their own unique properties and behaviours when in motion on the horse and the type of wool used in the saddle will be dependent on the type of saddle and its use.

And thus concludes our quick history of the panel. During my research for this blog I have relied greatly on the knowledge of the "Brown Saddlers" working in the trade today, (Black saddlers being the name given to harness makers.) Many of whom began their apprenticeships in the 60's & 70's as teenagers being trained by older and more experienced Saddlemakers in the workshop who would have began their apprenticeship under similar circumstances in the 20's. So much working knowledge has been handed down in this way with very little 'official' information being written down with the exception of their personal notes. With the Saddlery Trade originating from London until it travelled up the river and came to settle today in Walsall, the home of the Leather trade, many physical records where lost in the blitz. I give special mention to the books "Saddlery & Harness-Making" 1904 published by J.A Allen & co and "Saddlery" 1963 by E.H Edwards. Both books have been a superb insight into the trade during it's golden age. And a special mention of course to Mr Nick Dolman for allowing me to pick his brain over time for the golden nuggets that inspired and formed this blog.