Horses in warfare of today's English saddle. Both the Scythians and Assyrians used pads with added felt attached with a surcingle or girth around the horse's barrel for increased security and comfort. Xenophon mentioned the use of a padded cloth on cavalry mounts as early as the 4th century BC. The saddle with a solid framework, or "tree", provided a bearing surface to protect the horse from the weight of the rider, but was not widespread until the 2nd century AD. However, it made a critical difference, as horses could carry more weight when distributed across a solid saddle tree. A solid tree,
Tree girth measurement multi-trunk tree consisting of three separate trunks emerging from the same root mass that have grown together to form the massive base of the tree and therefore its girth cannot be fairly compared to those trees with just a single trunk. Many of the large girth baobabs may be multi-trunk clusters as well. The General Grant Tree (Sequoiadendron giganteum) in King’s Canyon National park in California is clearly a single trunk tree. It was measured to have a girth of measured at a height of . There are historical accounts of trees with extremely large girths. These should not be