Sub-Roman Britain (Cavalry etc)

[Alanus]

A question: Elsewhere in this thread we've discussed how the Roman four-pommeled saddle was just as effective a fighting platform as a saddle with stirrups. (And we all agree that stirrups didn't find their way to western Europe until centuries after our period of interest.) Even if late empire or early post-empire horses were smaller, how did an armored warrior mount such a saddle?

Normally, someone riding bareback or with a girth strap, faces the horse, grabs a fistful of the horse's mane with his left had while resting his right on the horse's rump and leaps upward, twisting to swing his right leg over the horse's back. This should be an easy maneuver for skilled horse warriors. But if you add a four-pommeled saddle and the weight of a mail shirt, shield and baldric-suspended sword, it becomes almost impossible: he weighs a lot more, and he has to jump higher. In camp I suppose they might have mounting blocks, but in open field there may be nothing convenient to mount from.

Did I miss something? :?

A lot of questions there! 8)
I imagine the modern Equites Taifali are jumping onto their mounts. Probably build up leg muscles. Don't know what additional poundage all the armor and equipment adds. I trimmed almost 10 pounds from my own chainmail, and I think scale and lamellar armor was is even lighter. Some folks believe the steppe saddle was also in place during this period; and for sure, it was the forerunner of the medieval (and modern Portugese) saddle. My ridge helmet weighs 8 pounds, but the nasal interferes with "sighting" for archers like myself. I opt for a pot helmet with a chainmail aventail, much lighter. But I'm not a true horseman and also a man of advanced years. The younger guys, like John Conyard, would know more. For sure, the Roman horse was not tall. It was medium height and easier to mount than something like an Arabian.

But the actual Roman cavalryman DID mount his horse, maybe on the run. It was part of his training, mentioned somewhere. Perhaps Vegetius.