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,
Girth (geometry) Girth (geometry) In three-dimensional geometry, the girth of a geometric object, in a certain direction, is the perimeter of its parallel projection in that direction. For instance, the girth of a unit cube in a direction parallel to one of the three coordinate axes is four: it projects to a unit square, which has four as its perimeter. The girth of a sphere in any direction equals the circumference of its equator, or of any of its great circles. More generally, if "S" is a surface of constant width "w", then every projection of "S" is a curve of constant