ABSTRACT
It appears that when horses were originally introduced into West Africa, they were ridden without saddle or stirrups, and perhaps also without a bit. The introduction into West Africa of the stirrup certainly, of the saddle probably, and of the bit possibly, occurred only during the Islamic era, after the seventh century a.d. The saddle is a somewhat older invention than the stirrup, but it also seems to be a recent arrival in West Africa. Cushion saddles or blankets were, indeed, used in Asia and Europe from the earliest days of horse-riding. The horse equipment more generally used in recent times in West Africa is clearly modelled upon that in use in the Islamic world across the Sahara. The horse equipment of the Islamic world, in turn, is in essentials the same as that used in Christian Europe in medieval times.
