How Could A 19th century setting effectively Saddle and ride a domesticated Sivatherium Giganteum

Question

Sivatherium giganteum is incredibly underutilized as a creature design and I want to use it in my world. It is a fantasy with around 19th century level technology, magic exists but follows a set of rules that make it unhelpful in this case. How would my civilization design a saddle for a Sivatherium, given that it is a very different animal to those that humans usually ride? How would they design a saddle to overcome things like the sloped back and its significant height?

Answer 1

Worldbuilding is about research and imagination

We need to analyze the animal we're dealing with. We have the benefit of thousands of years of hindsight in saddle design, so let's put it to work. We need to work with the imaginative assumption that the creature can handle the purpose it's being put to. So, let's begin with an image of what we're working with.

Image courtesy Wikipedia. Click on the image to enlarge.

There is a slope to deal with, unlike horses where the spine is horizontal to the land below, this spine is sloped front-to-back. Horse saddles only have a girth (a belt running across the belly of the horse), this saddle will require something else.

1. Straps over both shoulders, meeting over the breastbone, with a single strap connecting to the girth.

2. The saddle tree must have added dimension, raising the cantle in the rear. I don't believe it should be raised to make the saddle entirely level (I'll explain why later). While technologically "modern" saddles might have springs or pneumatic shocks under the cantle, in the beginning it will merely be padding.

Next, we need to compare how creatures run. Let's start with horses. Check out this video showing running horses. The beauty of the horse is that it's gait is smooth. Oh, there's bumpiness. Horses bounce you up and down (humans do, too, but most of us don't notice it).

Next, view this video of running giraffes. There is an anticipated difference between this and sivatherium giganteum due to the difference in leg length. The longer legs of the giraffe will (I believe) exaggerate the motion, but we can't ignore the motion. Notice the giraffe is rocking back and forth.

3. Humans are remarkably adaptable, but it would make sense to hinge the stirrups so they can pivot with the rider and the animal. This would help the rider maintain balance without having to shift a substantial amount of their body weight — and why I said the cantle should be lifted to make the saddle entirely level with the ground. The rider needs to slightly lean forward to maintain balance as the creature runs — but only a bit.

You still need all the developments of a horse's saddle that we have today, but with these modifications a rider should be capable of predictably and, within reason, comfortably use the sivatherium giganteum as a cavalry mount.

Answer 2

First things first: Let's look at a lifelike reconstruction of the animal:

and its skeleton:

... and note that Wikipedia (from which these images were sourced) says that:

Sivatherium resembled the modern okapi, but was far larger, and more heavily built, being about 2.2 m (7.2 ft) tall at the shoulder, 3 m (9.8 ft) in total height with a weight up to 400–500 kg (880–1,100 lb). A newer estimate has come up with an estimated body mass of about 1,250 kg (2,760 lb) or 1,360 kg (3,000 lb).

So, this is a very big, very tall animal, and a human would have trouble just getting onto its back, much less staying there given the downward slope of its back from its shoulders to its hips. It'd be quite a climb... or would require a sizeable mounting block, which would be impractical in the field.

I have previously had occasion to observe an elephant's mahout mounting his elephant, and the technique involves the mahout stepping upon the elephant's raised forearm. However, an elephant has a longer upper arm and forearm, and a short hand and digits, while a Sivatherium has a short upper arm, a long forearm, and a long, fused 'hand' and two digits.

Given the way that these joints would bend, by the time that there was a level surface upon which a rider could stand, the forearm (which would likely be the only part of the forelimb strong enough to support a huuman's weight) would likely be almost a metre and a half above the ground, which is still a rather long step. While the foot bones of the hind leg would be lower (since the ankle bends forwards), it would also be unlikely to be able to be used as a mounting step, since bending forward doesn't support the animal's weight when running, so it need only be strong enough to lift the foot high enough to clear obstacles when moving.

We couldn't mount the beast by having its hand bone (the black ends of the forelimbs in the life reconstruction photo above) bend backwards, since it isn't likely strong enough. Such joints work when running by locking in the forward position, and unlocking to pull the hooves up and back to clear obstacles, so they don't need to be particularly strong.

So, it would probably be necessary to have a mounting ladder attached to the saddle that could be lowered to allow the rider(s) to climb up and down. This would probably be a piece of reinforced leather with holes for hands and feet. The mounting ladder would probably be pulled up when the rider(s) mounted so that it would not chafe the animal when in motion.

The next issue in making a saddle is going to be the slope of the back and the tendency for weights upon it to slide downhill.

If we look at the parts of a saddle for a horse:

(Image attributed to https://blackjackhorsesaddles.com/)

We can see from the photo above that this saddle (unlike many horse saddles) has a breast collar that passes across the animal's breast, and also has a strap that passes from the breast collar between the legs to the cinch strap.

The breast collar would be necessary for a Sivatherium saddle so that it would not slide backwards, and the strap between the breast collar and cinch strap would also be necessary so that the breast strap would not slide up and choke the animal. Note that the photo of the skeleton shows that the opening in the top of the rib cage extends down between the shoulders, and this is where the windpipe and esophagus would pass through. The breast collar would likely need to be wider than is necessary for a horse's saddle in order to safely distribute the larger forces across the animal's body.

Furthermore, the seat and cantle of the saddle would likely need to be designed to prevent the rider from sliding off the back of the saddle, most likely with a high cantle, since a wedge to level the seat would add unnecessary weight.

These are the two major issues that a Sivatherium saddle would need to address. Given the size of a Sivatherium, it may well be possible to have saddles for two or even three riders without overloading the animal. Other than that, I expect that a saddle would be of similar construction from wood and leather as modern saddles.

The last issue would be saddling the beast. Given its height, unless the animal could be trained to sit down (which giraffes are known to do occasionally) and is strong and smooth enough to stand when partially saddled without throwing the saddle off, it may be necessary to saddle the animal from a mounting block. It's not impossible that a Sivatherium could be saddled in the field without a mounting block, since ruminants (including modern cows and giraffes) all stand hind-legs first then forelegs, and this would help prevent an uncinched saddle from sliding off over their backside.