Spanish soldiers and adventurers brought horses to the Americas. By the sixteenth century horses had reached what is now the United States. North American Indians, particularly Plains Indians quickly became adept horsemen, for horses raised their standard of living by orders of magnitude.

As far as I can determine, the saddlery Europeans brought with [their] horses did not become ubiquitous among Plains Indians - for travel, hunting, and warfare - as did horses. Why did not American Indians generally adopt some form of saddlery for mounted people? While they did not have the technical facility to create close copies of European saddles, they had the skills to create some sort of adaptation that would have enhanced their ability to use horses for riders' use, that is, those horses not used as beasts of burden. Old World civilizations did not always have saddlery. They created saddlery equipment to enhance their ability to use horses. So why did Plains tribes remain essentially bareback riders while they were free of American (United States) domination?

They adapted and were excellent riders without saddles.They were considered the best horse Calvary in the world.If they had other than bows and arrows and spears we would have never made them submit.Even with bow and arrow they could draw the bow and fire much faster while riding than mounted troops could who had to stop their horses to reload.

If you had started riding before you could walk you would be an adept horseman as well.And yes the horse was a great boost up on the status plane but it was primarily a very real item of value.If nothing else it gave you a great advantage on the hunt + in a society that did not use money that was a REAL value.

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They adapted and were excellent riders without saddles.They were considered the best horse Calvary in the world.If they had other than bows and arrows and spears we would have never made them submit.Even with bow and arrow they could draw the bow and fire much faster while riding than mounted troops could who had to stop their horses to reload.

Well, it would have taken a little longer, but their fate was sealed. They were out numbered and technology was against them along with disease brought to America by Europeans.

Also, as is so often the caser in these type discussions, it was only the Plains tribes that became so proficient and dependent upon horses over about 200 years. It is believed that Indians did not begin acquiring horses until the early/mid 1500's. Even then it was not until the mid to late 1600's that the groups that would become the dominant tribes on the Plains began acquiring and working with the horses. The Comanche's/Sioux or Dakotas and Cheyenne being considered the best of the group have been estimated to have achieved that status during approximately a 200 year time span from mid 1600 till the early 1800's.

Many folks don't realize that diseases such as small pox and syphilis had ravaged several tribes prior to the Civil War. Add to that the constant war fare among the tribes themselves, even among the various, sub groups. The Army used Apaches to help subdue the Navajo, and the Navajo gladly helped the Army to put down the Apaches, and even groups such as the White Mountain Apaches helped the Army put down the Mescalero and Chiricahua Apaches.

There were a lot more dynamics involved concerning the whole civilization that compromised the North American Indians, not just the Horse culture, that was totally lost to history because of the way things took place.

I believe some put a rope around the horse to wedge their knees in. As nomads, the least amount of gear was the trend. What do you do with the saddle after you eat the horse?

Lots of Native American saddles at the Panhandle Plains Museum in Canyon, Texas. Mostly Comanche if I remember right.

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Lots of Native American saddles at the Panhandle Plains Museum in Canyon, Texas. Mostly Comanche if I remember right.

Quite correct Bill. I have spent several hours over the years at that facility. Under normal circumstances, saddles were used mainly by the women and on ceremonial occasions by the men.

Under normal, day to day circumstances they would or might use a blanket and a sort of bridle with reins made of leather.

Palo Duro Canyon which is close to the city of Canyon was the last stronghold of the Comanche and when they were defeated by the cavalry, around 1500 horses were slaughtered by the cavalry.

Took the human race quite a while to go from saddles to inventing stirrups, which revolutionized warfare, Maybe if the Natives had more time they might have figured it out.

Grizz

Stirrups is not what helped the U.S. Army or the Texas Rangers, learning to stay mounted on their horse and not fighting like Dragoons, who rode their mounts to the battle, then dismounted and fought, or tried to on foot.

The Plains tribes had mounted warfare down to a science. Want to gain some actual knowledge about the Indian War in Texas, you can either read or get the CD of a book written by S.C. Gwynn titled "Empire Of The Summer Moon".

It is a really good and accurate account of Frontier Texas and the interactions between whites and Indians.

That is a great book concerning the life of Quanah Parker + much more. Highly recommended. There is also a book called "Land Of Good Water" by Clara Yarborough (wife of the editor of the Williamson County Sun)that gives a very good story of our county from republic to statehood. One excert that I particuarly like as it happened just about 4 miles from where I liveIt was recorded as the last big Comanche raid. It was in Hopewell,Tx. in 1863. The men were all off to war so easy pickins.This woman was riding her horse + saw smoke + pulled up over a ridge + saw the Comanches doing their regular business. Then she noticed a little white girl hiding behind a bush. She told her to get in front of her on the horse.About that time the Comanches saw them + came after them but her horse was still fresh while theirs were winded.She takes off;about this time a little black slave girl comes out from another bush needing obvious rescue. The woman knows that horse can not carry 3 so she tells the girl,"If you value your life,you will keep up with this horse."Story is that she did.

As to the Indian being the best light horse cavalry in the world, that's just some creative writers imagination that caught on, Indians of the day rode starved feral, and mustang, horses as a rule,rode them to death then ate them. they had no particular skills other than being able to shoot a bow off a horse while chasing buffalo, not much of a skill in horsemanship terms as anybody ranch raised or with a modicum of aquiree skill could do that. they could ride well enough,and they did have some saddles but saddles like they made were counterproductive to horse and rider..They didn't have a saddle maker who could build a saddle to fit the horse, and that is catamount to good horsemanship and good horses, the best they had was stolen Military McClelans (SP ?) this is how and why the Texas Rangers rode them down like preditors on prey and annialated the Plains Indians from Texas in a very short and bloody time in Texas history, while the US govt took forever in the Pacific NW, and that was a draw as the Plains Indains ran to the great father in Canada and were given scantuary..The greatest light cavalry arguably came from ranch raised very young cowboys who became Texas Rangers in their early teens along with the help of Samuel Colt. they won the Indain wars and the border wars against the Mexican horse and cattle theives who were also among the best of horsemen and feared by the both the Apache and Commanche Indians..The Mexican vaquero of California was also an aggressive force against the Indians and better horsemen, they were the first of the great horsemen, and the Texans followed suit, they learned from the California Mexicans and in many cases may have improved on it somewhat. The noble Indain, like most Western gunfighters was glamorized to a great degree in many ways, such as being the great conservative who only killed what they could eat when in fact they ran thousands of buffalo over cliffs and ate maybe 4 or 5 of them, much the same as all nomadic early people they had no notion of conservation, much the same as todays tribal African, and yesterdays white man who shot all the buffalo for their hides. It boils down to people are people and not much difference in any of us.

On your estimation of Indians and their horsemanship, we will simply have to agree to disagree.

The main reason the American Army was able to defeat the Plains Indians was due to sheer numbers, nothing more.

All of us are entitled to our beliefs, but reality is after the Civil War and Reconstruction, the restructured U.S. Military was able to concentrate all of its resources toward solving the Indian problem.

Were the Plains Indians as inept as some choose to believe, Custer would have been victorious at the Little Bighorn, that did not happen.

The U.S. Army was able to subdue the Indians thru superior numbers and technology, it was a forgone conclusion. Their main food source, Buffalo, had been reduced in numbers and range to the point that the Indians could no longer rely upon them.

Every time the Army scored a victory, the first order of business was to destroy all captured horses, for two important reasons. One, it deprived the Indians with a means of transportation and Second, those captured horses could not be integrated into use by the cavalry. Additionally, Indians relied on their horses as a food source when necessary.

The whole dynamics of the Indian Wars is difficult for many or most modern day Americans to grasp.

I agree. Although some find the actions of the military reprehensible,remember that judging from more than a century later is certainly debatable,however remember that attitudes + social mores of different times differ from the present. BTW,saw a bumper sticker today "You can trust your Government,just ask any Indian".

What defeated the Indian was the killing off of their horses, no transportation, and the hide hunters did away with their primary food source and the Braves that stayed to fight starved to death or turned themselves in and the white man made money on that and the Indians starved anyway...Lets face it not much has changed in the Govt. they can still screw up an anvil with a powder puff..

Times were different back then, the human is a cruel animal by nature, a preditore of sorts, and the Indians were no different than the soldiers, a lot of hate came out of the Indian wars, as family members were killed on both sides..Nothing new about it, its called war..

True.There were atrosaties done by both sides.It was a war indeed that was what most wars are about (property).We have a real problem with our history books these days that don't tell the kids the true story.But back to the cavalry;The mongols were very good as well as the cossacks + let us not forget the British behind the lines runners that used good Irish Horses on an oat diet during the Peninsular campaign.Now those guys were cavalrymen.

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the human is a cruel animal by nature,

I think that is the main aspect of human behavior that 21st. century humans are incapable of understanding.

It really does not matter how many thousands of year humans have been on this planet.

We are still basically top tier predators, but humans always have and still do to this day, add an element to the equation that lions or leopards or wolves or bears can not add, humans want to DOMINATE other humans.

We do not view other humans as food, except in some specific/rare cases.

We do or have viewed other humans as slaves/servants to be controlled and used for the more dominant humans to control and treat as property.

Even the "Lord's Of The Plains", did that long before Europeans reached this continent.

Concur on "Empire of the Summer Moon" being a must read. No one ruled the central plains quite as effectively as the Comanches until Palo Duro. They put the fear of god in all their enemies - anglos, Mexicans and Apaches included. They actually pushed back the settlement frontier in Texas.
I was six when my great grandmother died in 1959, just days before she would have been 100. Her father moved the family from California east to Texas about 1870, and they settled near Buffalo Gap. I was told as a child I could ask my GGM about horse and buggy days, but I was never to ask her about Comanches. Sorry to repeat a story I have told here before. I've got more.

It is difficult for me to equate the notion that Native Americans had no horse skills with the inherent complexity of riding bareback. That dont jibe. Just imagine yourself riding bareback while chasing and shooting a buffalo with a hand made bow and it is not too difficult to realize that would take a LOT of skill.

For the OP, this is a reply I found from a Native American on the subject.

"I live in Costa Rica from the US. I own and ride. I train and learning to do it the native American way. It’s not just about riding a horse but riding with the horse, as one and in spirit. It’s what I teach and am learning".

Unfortunately records of such things from the time of "the great horse Culture" are rare as hens teeth.

Assyrians, Mongols get my vote on best horse Calvary's.

Actually the plains Indians did make and use saddles. They were modeled off of the Spanish saddles. A good place to see them in the Buffalo Bill museum or just take a look at some of the paintings done by Charles Russell.

Many people want to downplay the ability of the Plains tribes when it comes to horsemanship, and that is LUDICROUS.

People really do need to visit places like the Buffalo Bill museum.

Mongols and other Asian and European people are good horsemen, but take into consideration how long those people had to work with horses compared to the Plains Indians!

Been to the BB Museum and lived among the Plains Indians and they still have among them, fantastic horsemen. Of course some are hopeless just like the rest of humankind when it comes to any particular skill.
I think the vote was for the best Light Calvary? Best means Best to me, and the Mongols and the Assyrians still get my vote. Not only horsemanship but weaponry and tactics.

Of course since it was the US cavalry that made the statement that the plains Indians were the best light cavalry and they had no experience with Mongols or Assyrians its kind of a mute point. They admired what they saw and fought against. Besides look how long it took for the US to finally defeat them compared to other tribes. Their victory came about a much by starving them as by direct combat.

The point being overlooked, concerns the difference in the lengths of time each of those civilizations had access to horses.

The Plains Indians accomplished their level of expertise in only about 200 years, whereas the Asians had several centuries before the first horses came to America.

I would imagine that one could learn how to ride in 200 years.

Riding bareback isn't difficult or for that matter impressive.

As Ray has alluded- a skill learned by most kids under 10 raised on a ranch, often with just bailing string on their horse (One that'll buck anyone else off). Even my wife, who was raised in town would do so as a child whenever she visited her cousins. We bought one of their kids' horses- Jackpot aptly named because every time he'd ride him and go roping they'd win...........FWIW Tuff is a little person who'd simply jump up on Jackpot and ride just holding the mane.

As far as saddles is concerned, even though we have famous saddle makers within driving distance, the most comfortable saddles we use are the Clinton Andersons. Of course YMMV.

Mine was a Calvin Allen but I got rid of it several years ago.Got tired of spending all that money on a 1000 lb. 3 year old w/steel shoes.

Yeah, but I can't help but believe there is a HELL of a lot of difference between just trying to stay on board a horse, and riding at full gallop along side an 800 to 2000 pound buffalo running flat out and putting an arrow in its ribs and being able to pull away and not get this horse killed or the rider.

I also bet that being able to draw a bow and shoot arrows out from under a galloping horses neck would be a little harder to accomplish with baling twine for reigns!

Yes indeed + don't forget the very real consequenses of being unhorsed in the midst of a buffalo stampede.