Queen's Own Oxfordshire Hussars Yeomanry (2 Viewers)

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I spent a very pleasant weekend generally working on this piece. The saddle seat was converted from a 1/35 Dragon kit accessory. This was fixed in place securely by means of two pins drilled for the arch. The figure was test-fitted on this new saddle, and his underside was sanded down to fit onto this. The saddle flaps was bulked up with putty, to be sanded down later. A Historex tail was fashioned with a Pyrogravure and the horse is now undergoing detailed painting before more straps are added.

 

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More pics

 

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The roughness of the saddle flaps was sanded down. The new saddle was further lowered and reshaped. The figure was tested for fit on the new saddle again and its final seat was determined by more sanding on the underside of the legs.

This is a critical moment. Having worked on this figure for such a long time, I have developed an attachment to it. But I now decided to lengthen the legs as it seems a little too short. Both legs were snipped off, wires drilled and inserted for support, and the legs lengthened. Putty was used to fill in the gaps.

 

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I added further details to the saddler, reshaping the kettledrum pads, and used modified Historex bits to create buckles for the saddle and the crupper. Since most of the eye-catching details would be upfront in the kettledrum banners, the inclusion of a crupper would draw interest back to the rear of the bare horse, thus balancing the composition.

Although I had already painted a coat of dappling on the horse, I added a wash of Paynes Grey to tone down the whiteness. I will redo the dappling later.
After such a long and protracted delay on this piece, I am rather pleased with the progress made so far and am waiting for the paint to dry before I move on to add the other straps.

 

[Napoleon1er]

Definitely one of your best pieces! I love to see additions to this....

 

[blaster]

Hello Sandor and all,

thanks for dropping by.

I am remodelling the crupper as I now have a pic of a yeomanry example. I have read that the crupper was not generally used but decided to model this rather eye-catching item. I will also be modelling the bridle next and should be able to post more pics in a few days.

I found a single reference to hooves being marked and WW1 war horses being branded with an upright broad arrow on the left hind quarter. I am now searching for more pics on horses and were they branded in the yeomanry etc. If you look at the neck of my horse, it has a scar wound....(actually a slip of the blade, but a wound nevertheless).
Rgds Victor

 

[Martin Tabony]

Hello Sandor and all,

thanks for dropping by.

I am remodelling the crupper as I now have a pic of a yeomanry example. I have read that the crupper was not generally used but decided to model this rather eye-catching item. I will also be modelling the bridle next and should be able to post more pics in a few days.

I found a single reference to hooves being marked and WW1 war horses being branded with an upright broad arrow on the left hind quarter. I am now searching for more pics on horses and were they branded in the yeomanry etc. If you look at the neck of my horse, it has a scar wound....(actually a slip of the blade, but a wound nevertheless).
Rgds Victor

I think you'll find that if a British military horse is branded (not often) then the mark will be hidden by the saddle. The British tradition is to I.D. numbers and letters into the fore hooves. This is one of the uses of the farriers axe. The hoof of a dead animal could by cut off in order to show it was dead (not sold to a local farmer). I've seen quite a few hooves mounted in silver and turned into ink wells and pen stands!

Martin

 

[blaster]

Hello Martin,

Thanks for your insight. I was re-reading Major Tylden's book Horses and Saddlery and it did state that the branding was done on either the neck, side or hind quarter. Branding was done to prevent horse thieving which was quite commonplace among mounted units placed together etc. But there was no picture of any branded horse. One reference showed a drawing (not photo) of a WWI horse being branded, then cancelled, then rebranded again when it was captured by the Germans, which I thought rather too extreme to depict on my Yeomanry piece. If I can't get any more pics of branded horse, then I'll probably forego adding this detail.

On the crupper, at least three references (including Chappell's book British Cavalry equipment) cite that these were largely discarded or unused, circa the introduction of the new UP saddle. However, your pics on a Horse Guard kettledrummer horse earlier on in this thread also showed a crupper. Looks like the crupper is still very much in use?

I remodelled the crupper, having seen a more interestingly detailed item on a Leicester Yeomanry website. This was a two-piece affair, with the main crupper part sub-divided into two straps attached to the rolled portion under the tail. The excess strap length linking this crupper to the saddle was rolled up neatly and tucked into the retaining strap. I epoxied the two kettledrums to the horse. This was done separately, as the weight of the metal kettledrums caused them to tilt. Having fixed these in place, I then decided to do a testfit of the rider and the banners clipped into place. Nice eh?

Rgds Victor

 

[theBaron]

Great progress, Vic! I love the dappled grey, and the drum banners look great! I also love the saddle, nicely sculpted.

Prost!
Brad

 

[Martin Tabony]

Yes Victor the Household Cavalry still use the crupper but just for decoration as it's original intent (to stop the saddle slipping forwards) isn't needed on a well fitted saddle. In day gone bye when a horse lost condition on campaign I should imagine it was quite useful!
Interesting what you said about the weight of the kettle drums. This is also the case with the real thing, when the first drum is fastened to the saddle, a counter weight is needed on the other side. Either a trooper has to hang off the other drum pad or the mounted drumer has to lean out.

Martin

 

[blaster]

Hello Brad and Martin,

Glad you liked it and thanks for your inputs. As a foot slogger, I am no equine expert. I am now perusing several books on horse saddle equipment to get into the mood and get some facts, one by a Susan McBane, in which she said that cruppers were necessary for small horses and ponies. I will tweak the spoon on the cantle and that's it for the saddle as most of it is covered by the drummer.

I am now focusing on the bit/bridle stuff and surcingle/breast straps. I need to understand what was the bit used by the QOOH yeomanry for kettledrummers with a throat plume. I also have a fancy illustrated book Complete Book of Bits and Bitting by a Elwyn Hartley Edwards, an expert on equestrian matters. One kick that I got was right at the Introduction, the author refers to the cowboy artist as Frank Remington, and his next picture of Mongols playing polo (?) looks very much like Turcomans. Anyway, I am just trying to understand how these things work but note that these are modern contrivances. I haven't come across a clear picture of the correct yeomanry kettledrummer bit/bridle harness yet.

Rgds Victor

 

[Martin Tabony]

I've never really bothered with small ponies, except for the odd burger!

The photo of the drum horse shows a pretty standard head kit with extra straps over the face. A bridoon bit (small ring snaffle) and a curb bit. No stirrup reins. The beard (throat plume) strap follows the throat lash.

Martin

 

[johnnybach]

Hi Vic - Not sure if this will help a bit - but found this pic of Martin - around 1909 playing with his pony. Even if it doesn't help - it's quite a nice picture anyway - so thought you might like it as a pin-up. jb{sm3}

 

[Martin Tabony]

Jonny, the picture is based on a photo of Kettledrummer Alfred E. Morris of the First Life Guards, on Paddy I (who served from 1909 till 1916.) He was actually skewbald but the picture makes him look piebald.
You may be interested to know that in the Household Cavalry "Kettledrummer" was an appointment until WW2.

Martin

 

[4th Hussar]

Hi Vic - Not sure if this will help a bit - but found this pic of Martin - around 1909 playing with his pony. Even if it doesn't help - it's quite a nice picture anyway - so thought you might like it as a pin-up. jb{sm3}

Martin can ride; play the drums and sculpt all at the same time ? What a man !:salute::

 

[johnnybach]

Jonny, the picture is based on a photo of Kettledrummer Alfred E. Morris of the First Life Guards, on Paddy I (who served from 1909 till 1916.) He was actually skewbald but the picture makes him look piebald.
You may be interested to know that in the Household Cavalry "Kettledrummer" was an appointment until WW2.

Martin

Yo dude! - Nice bit of detail there - which wasn't mentioned in Bill Carman's excellent book ( Uniforms of The British Army; The Cavalry Regiments), which is highly recommended by me, as it's based on hundreds of prints of the Victorian artist - Richard Simkin. It's about as close as you can get to a primary source for a lot of the uniforms of the period.

As I understand it, a Skewbald can be any colour, with white patching - other than black with white patches, whereas a Piebald is Black & White?? Is that correct?

It's a great picture, nonetheless - and one which I hope to be able to reproduce for myself (though NOT in Sate Dress) - as I hope to be obtaining one (plus a mounted band) from Brian at Yeomanary Miniatures one of these days. It will be as castings - so that I can indulge myself in the pleasure of painting it up. I rather like the idea of trying to make up "Paddy".

I really put the pic. up here, so that Vic could see the great detail shown on Paddy'd head/ harness etc. Would this have been close to what could have been on Vic's gee-gee??

Cheers chums - jb.

 

[Martin Tabony]

Yo dude! - Nice bit of detail there - which wasn't mentioned in Bill Carman's excellent book ( Uniforms of The British Army; The Cavalry Regiments), which is highly recommended by me, as it's based on hundreds of prints of the Victorian artist - Richard Simkin. It's about as close as you can get to a primary source for a lot of the uniforms of the period.

As I understand it, a Skewbald can be any colour, with white patching - other than black with white patches, whereas a Piebald is Black & White?? Is that correct?

It's a great picture, nonetheless - and one which I hope to be able to reproduce for myself (though NOT in Sate Dress) - as I hope to be obtaining one (plus a mounted band) from Brian at Yeomanary Miniatures one of these days. It will be as castings - so that I can indulge myself in the pleasure of painting it up. I rather like the idea of trying to make up "Paddy".

I really put the pic. up here, so that Vic could see the great detail shown on Paddy'd head/ harness etc. Would this have been close to what could have been on Vic's gee-gee??

Cheers chums - jb.

Skewball = brown and white, piebald = black and white. A mix is just called "multi coloured".

I think that head kit is a bit overly decorated, Vic's figure looks like standard 1884 with the addition of a cross piece and a beard.
Paddy's head kit has the same 1" star plates that are still used. They are the same as the ones on an O.Rs back stay.

 

[blaster]

Hi All,

Thanks for looking and giving inputs. Looing at what Martin wrote, I believe you meant 1885 bridle with a cross piece. This got me looking again at Chapell's book and he makes reference to the 1860 bridle used during the Crimean war, eventually being supplanted by the 1885 bridle (I think I got the dates above right..?). Then I remembered that I had the book "Into the Valley of Death" by the Mollos and Fosten, which showed numerous illustrations of this bridle with either the inverted Y or X cross piece. Although there is a para which states that light cavalry (Hussars) used the X cross piece and heavy cavalry (dragoons and lancers) used the inverted Y crosspiece, the illustrations show the Hussars with the inverted Y cross piece and the dragoons with the X cross piece (an illustration error?). Anyway, the QOOH kettledrummer picture seems to have an X cross piece so that is what I will model.

Rgds Victor

 

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Had a brainwave. Since I couldn't seem to get any definitive references on the horse harness off the web, I took a photo of the tiny QOOH kettledrummer pic and blew it up just to look at the head harness.

 

[blaster]

Hi All,

I was re-reading parts of this thread and noted that the last picture definitely shows separate bridle and bit. So I will model what I see.

Now to locate the figure after the last round of spring cleaning. How come the figures are still mysteriously dislocated even after spring cleaning? This spring cleaning is a myth created by the spouses, guys. Don't believe it! There are elves around who secrete your figures here and there....

Rgds Victor