HOME ABOUT US CONTACTS & ORDERING PRODUCTS   SADDLES   SADDLE ACCESSORIES   BRIDLES   HALTERS   BAGGAGE & FORAGE   KNAPSACKS   ACCOUTREMENTS LEATHER & LEATHER CARE SADDLE FITTING 7-YEARS WAR REVOLUTIONARY WAR WAR OF 1812 AMERICAN CIVIL WAR  Contact Us:         Stuart Lilie, Saddler         130 Mansfield Rd.         Ashford, CT 06278         info@stuartliliesaddles.com         (860) 208 3111	Products - Saddles - 1759 Light Dragoon Saddle, Elliot Pattern
	The 1759 light dragoon saddle was the single most common saddle in use in the American Revolution. While no official pattern for this saddle from the Board of General Officers has has it is described in Hinde's Discipline of the Light Horse and illustrated Pembroke's Military Equitation. The Elliot saddle's distinctive sillhouette shows up commonly in images from the Morier light dragoon paintings right through paintings from the 1790s. George Augustus Elliot standardized this type of saddle in 1759 when he received royal authorization to raise the 15th Light Dragoons. The saddle was a civilian hunt saddle modified for military service. While this had been done before to equip volunteer light dragoons raised by the Duke of Kingston and others during the 1745 Jacobite Rebellion, these early saddles used all the same heavy dragoon harness and equipment. Elliot's pattern fully realized the potential of the light hunt saddle with new patterns for lightened carbines, pistols, bits, bridles, housings, and a breastplate set much higher up to remove any possible impediment to the movement of a galloping horse. With the fame that Elliot and his light dragoons received at Ermsdorf, this type of saddle was adopted for all subsequent light dragoon regiments in Britain, including the 16th or Queen's Light Dragoons and the 17th Light Dragoons who served in America a decade and a half later. Based on price lists in supply returns this saddle was also the most common issue to provincial light dragoons in North America. DeVerger images of continental light dragoons indicate that many of the saddles listed in their regimental stores were local copies of this type of saddle. The Elliot saddle remained standard in British service right into the 1790's, supplanted only by hussar-type saddles in the Napoleonic wars. It does appear there was some evolution in the pattern that coincides with changes in civilian fashion and experience in the field. The engraving in Pemroke's book and Sandby sketches of camp scenes outside London show Elliot saddles from the later 1770's with a more squared-off skirt, the same as civilian saddles at the time. The list of necessaries for a light dragoon from Sir Henry Clinton shows the issuance of leather circingles, rather than worsted, and brass cantle binding to reduce wear in the field. From a riding standpoint, this saddle does what any good military saddle should do: seated, it provides a solid dressage seat to allow for the control needed to drill in line while at the same time, the saddle rides great cross-country and over fences.                     Saddle only: $1575 Saddle Accessories for use with this saddle: 18th Century Holsters with Straps: $300 Goatskin Holster Flounce: $40 Elliot Light Dragoon Breastplate: $17.80 Elliot Light Dragoon Pillion: $140 Crupper $57.25 Stirrup Leathers, pair: $108 English Dragoon Stirrups, pair: $150 Double Cloak Straps, set of 3: $87.25 2 Worsted Girth Straps and 1 Worsted or Leather Circingle   Worsted Girth Straps and Circingle: Market Price   Leather Circingle: $93.25 Light Dragoon Muzzle Down Carbine Bucket with Wrist Strap: $130.50