Barding

Barding (also spelled bard or barb) is body armour for war horses. The practice of armoring horses first developed extensively in antiquity in the Asian kingdoms of Parthia and Pahlava. After the conquests of Alexander the Great in the 4th century BC it likely made its way - along with cataphract technology - into European military practices via the Seleucid Empire and later the Byzantine Empire. Though its historical roots lie in antiquity in the regions of what was once the Persian Empire, barded horses have become a symbol of the late European Middle Ages chivalry and the era of knights.

Examples of armour for horses could be found as far back as classical antiquity. Many historians believe that cataphracts, with scale armour for both rider and horse, influenced the later European knights, via contact with the Byzantine Empire.

During the Late Middle Ages as armour protection for knights became more effective, their mounts became targets. This vulnerability was exploited by the Scots at the Battle of Bannockburn in the 14th century, when horses were killed by the infantry, and by the English at the Battle of Crécy in the same century where long-bowmen shot horses and the then dismounted French knights were killed by heavy infantry. Barding developed as a response to such events.

The full bard was developed by Lorenz Helmschmied and Konrad Seusenhofer for Maximilian I, who used them extensively for propagandic and aesthetic purposes, as well as diplomatic gifts.