“What happened to the wood?” The saddle they showed was no longer made of wood, but leather. Each seat had long, leather padding draping down from the front in the shape of a triangle, and the stirrups erged from this. The four leather posts remained, two at the back and front, though larger and rectangular rather than round, and much thicker than before. Not quite the saddles I was used to from movies and shows, but closer in appearance.
“Oh, the wood remains, Your Highness. However, it has been divided in twain.”
“Pardon ? Divided? How does this create stability?” I’d tasked these artisans to create a saddle more solid than the four posted leather ones used here. My saddles needed to support a fully armored knight and the force of a lance smashing into enemies.
“Excuse , if I may answer?” It was one of the saddle maker’s apprentices. A teenage boy, looking directly at , holding his hands together. He separated them as if drawing a line in the air, “Horses cannot take pressure on their spine. Directly on their spine, so we-”
“-I ca up with a different saddle,” the artisan gave an angry stare at the boy, who stared right back and just as angry, “We, pardon, we realized that by putting wood on either side of the saddle would provide the sturdiness you required while sparing the horse’s spine from crushing.”
I decided to stay out of it. “And these posts? If the seat doesn’t move, these won’t hug the rider as before.”
“We’ve stiffened them up, with a flat wooden core surrounded by hardened leather.”
“Ah.” I ran my hand along the smooth saddles. It was indeed stiffer and harder than their previous ones. Yet, the posts moved a little too much for my tastes. “What about using a ridge along the back, like the back of a chair? But, I an, not that high. Just a little one.”
“Uhm, we are, Your Highness, trying to avoid placing wood across the spine . . .”
“Yes, well, these seem, to , not tight enough. What about a rise here, but entirely in leather, to give so support.”
“Hmm, it’s possible.” He stared at the saddle for a ti. “Yes, I think I . . . we can work that out.”
The boy looked at him, rolled his eyes, and spoke to , nodding, “We can work that out. We’ll take these two posts at the back, make them shorter and build a leather wall between them. That would give you the structure you’re looking for.”
I smiled at him, “Thank you. That sounds excellent.” Finally, finally, the saddle was coming together. Who knew it would be the most difficult of all the changes I’d instituted? It’s just a saddle! No moving parts! Well, maybe so movent in there.
“Ok, once you’ve finalized the, uh, saddle here, when you’ve gotten these last few kinks out, the problems fixed, I need you to dramatically upscale its production.”
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“Pardon , my lady, what do you an by that?”
“She ans-” the older guy bumped the younger guy to stop him from interrupting , I suppose.
But I was thinking. Rand was the solution. Well, his soldiers. “I’m going to send you each ten soldiers. You’ll train them on how to make these saddles. Whichever team works out how to make these saddles fastest will get a reward. Uh, gold and a bunch of wine. And that person will beco my new master saddle maker.” Then, I thought to myself, we’ll expand to hundreds of soldiers making these saddles, to outfit the entire cavalry. No need to shock these guys, though, I’d tell them later.
The boy’s eyes were wide and I could see his mind working through the details. He wanted that position. The other guy, well, he must have thought I was just going to give it to him, because he was sulking a little. Not my problem.
“Alright, ask Lady Brin or Sir Tread for whatever tools and materials you need. Thank you gentlen and good luck! May the best person win.” After their bowing, perhaps during it, I headed off to find Rand.
***
Rand said, “The soldiers need to train, though, my lady. This will eat into their ti.”
“Walk with a mont.” I put my arm in his, leaving my guards behind, strolling along the grassy hilltop. Rand’s cavalry continued their paces. Charging with their spears and hitting targets if they were heavy, loosing arrows if they were light, and all manner of wheeling about, circling targets, it was quite a sight. These horsen could actually plant a spear in the ground and have the horse circle it, the horses were that agile, the riders that competent.
Off in the distance, wind cast waves across the grass. Beyond this, the outer walls. On the other side, tiny little houses with trails of smoke reaching into the sky from their chimneys.
“I need your soldiers to make saddles for a few reasons. First, we don’t have enough craftsn. Really, we’re straight out. And even if there were available craftsn, we don’t have the ans to pay for them or feed them. The army is taking everything we have. Second, we need these saddles, and lots of them, by spring. Third, and this is probably the most important, if so of the n know how to make these saddles, then we can restart the factory, I an, sorry, saddle making, well, anywhere. We won’t lose the production by going to war.”
“Oh.” He worked through the details himself. Rand was a smart man. Cynical, yes, but pragmatic to a fault. “Yes, I see now. In fact, you should have soldiers learning smithing for all your weapons.”
“You’re right about that. Infantry is making sarissa and lances, and the crossbow regints making their own weapons. I hadn’t made any soldiers armorer’s apprentices yet, but I’ll get on that shortly.”
“Alright, how will we do this?”
“We’ll rotate soldiers so that they can train and learn the trades. Though, they’ll have to spend a fair bit of ti apprenticing at the beginning. After they know how to make the saddles, it’ll be easier to juggle workdays and training days. Or, even do one in the morning, one in the afternoon.”
“Probably not a few n will see the working days as drinking days.”
“Oh. Right.” This pre-industrial age, pre-clock society, different work ethic. “I guess that ans we’ll need considerably more n learning the skill. Why don’t you choose those with appropriate backgrounds? Saddle making, leatherworking or, you know, sothing along those lines. Also, we should probably get cavalry n learning how to make their own weaponry, too. Lances, bows, arrows, and so on.”
“Most of them can make their own arrows, my lady. The more complex weaponry requires more dedicated training, though.”
“Right. Thanks, Major. I will leave it in your capable hands and be comforted by that knowledge.”
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