Saddles? Why have them?

[Nature's Spell 526]

One item of clothing or accessories that the ponies were or mention are saddles. The royal guards have them and I think even Twilight has one down on a list she made.

My question is why would they exist? Saddles were invented by humans to make riding a horse (pony) easier, but nobody is riding them in Equestria. My guess is the writers added them for their horseyness, rather than being useful. Anything equine is included in the show, but the truth is they should not exist.

[Darkshift 85]

Errr you do understand its a fantasy cartoon which was first invented with the target audience of young children meaning it was an idea which wasn't supposed to be realistic but a cool idea.

[Katskratch 59]

Given the context that saddles appear in I'd think it to be a form of clothing for ponies similar to vests for humans. Heavy and thus warm, so it'd often be used in winter months, can serve as a form of armoring when made of certain materials which is why the guards have it, and general purpose enough to be integrated into designs like some of Rarity's work. 

 

So the writers just chose this clever way to integrate a horse thing into the show. 

[Abstract 831]

Yeah, they're just for show; something the little ones can relate to, making the characters more "horseish" (That's a word now, by the way.)

[Nature's Spell 526]

Errr you do understand its a fantasy cartoon which was first invented with the target audience of young children meaning it was an idea which wasn't supposed to be realistic but a cool idea.

Of course I know that, but I felt it was an interesting topic in light of a similar topic on horseshoes. If we aren't talking about the little details of the show here than where else should we? :-)

I agree that it was a clever way for the writers to bring in several elements and I have to say I'm always impressed how well they do those kind if things. Clever writers.

[Scootalove 10,684]

I guess they have saddles, as clothing to keep themselves warm during a cold winter night. Even though ponies don't normally wear any clothes at all, just accessories like hats.

[Fluttermena 1,223]

What? No one posted that well-known picture yet? I guess I'll have to do it...

 

 

Yeah, probably just a not well thought out decision by the writers in an attempt to pass that characters as more horsey. But I can never criticise something that gives us more fetish material.

[ReGen 1,466]

They wear saddles 'cause they're kinky as hell.

 

I'd have to agree with what Katskratch said: They're most likely used to warm during winter n' such.

[Onylex 2,836]

I doubt its actually used as a saddle, its probably more a long the lines of some kind a fashion in the pony world. Most of the ponies in MLP dont even where cloth a lot of the time. Im surprised you didn't ask something like why do cloths exist in a world where not waring them is considered the normal. 

[Nature's Spell 526]

I doubt its actually used as a saddle, its probably more a long the lines of some kind a fashion in the pony world. Most of the ponies in MLP dont even where cloth a lot of the time. Im surprised you didn't ask something like why do cloths exist in a world where not waring them is considered the normal.

You're right about questioning the clothes, but a saddle is so purpose built to hold a bipedal, a human, that if you are trying to make sense of, and bring order to, the MLP universe this is another oddity. The warmth angle is interesting, but a saddle blanket is really what keeps horses warm. I guess those are clothing.

[Lume WMj 228]

Yeah, I'd say those saddles are just pieces of pony clothing, whether to warm up during the cold or just to dress up fancy for galas and such. Like you said, the writers probably put them in for the sake of the horseyness of the characters, just like the word "everypony" and the flower/hay sandwiches. I doubt they were intended to have the same use of our world's saddles.

[spacestorm 183]

Have you not seen Spike ride Twilight?

 

So maybe ponies allow some creatures to ride them.

 

Or this    I hope that how Spike will look like when he grows up.

Edited August 19, 2013 by spacestorm

[RrVPfX9cPtw59FpC 1,296]

Why do we wear necklaces, even though the giants which hang things on us don't exist? My guess would be that it's just fashion for ponies, and doesn't serve much of a purpose. However, it's possible that the ponies could carry things more easily with a saddle.

[NightsEmber 2]

My headcannon is dimensional bleed over.  They have little idea of the true use of it but thanks to neighboring dimensions that are close to or touching theirs at places the concept or idea bleed over and became a fashion item.

This also explains the city names.

[~Silver Essence~ 2,621]

They were only existent in the first few episodes.

 

I'm glad they're gone because they look a bit odd on them most of the times.

 

Although, at times, they do look a bit kinky to me. 

[Gamer_Luna27 77]

I have two theories. 1) They use saddles to help them carry stuff around, it's not like they have hands or anything to do that or 2) they are expecting mankind to make an inter-dimensional portal, thus allowing humans to travel to worlds that have been created by human hands. I think that latter one would be cooler (20% so ) but the former is probably more accurate.

[Fhaolan 4,468]

I'm usually one of the first to speculate on this kind of thing...

 

But I've been avoiding it because honestly, my mind goes straight to kinky and didn't want to go beyond.

 

So... let's force the issue. This is a piece of equipment/clothing that seems to have no real purpose. Are there parallels in RL? Yes.

 

Men's ties. These are the last remnants of the cravat, the neck-scarf, and the ruff. Objects that originally served specific purposes, but with the improvements in laundering and the reduction of cost of producing well-made shirts, those purposes went away. But for some reason the stupid tie stuck around as a decorative item.

 

So likely the 'saddle' is a remnant of the original object. I've not seen anything in show resembling stirrups on these saddles, or the earlier Celtic-style posts, so the purpose was not to carry a humanoid body, but is more like a pack saddle meant to attach stuff to. Given the tendency of fashion to go ridiculous, and then scale back again later, it is likely that in the pony equivalent to the Elizabethan era, the outfits got so elaborate and heavy that it required strapping and underlying structures to keep them from sliding around. Very likely, the 'Saddle' is this underlying structure that has survived in Equestrian fashion, and retains the name of the culture the creators thought they were emulating with their designs. The 'Saddle Arabians' we've seen had very elaborate decorative outfits, including a many-layered cloth and leather array on their backs. Lighter than what I'm envisioning the Elizabethan-style ponies having, but that's the effect of over-exaggerated fashion tends to track.

 

And with the removal of all the overlays, cloths, and whatnot, has turned the 'saddle' from a foundation garment into a decorative item in and of itself. Much like a human corset.

 

Which puts us right back to kinky. Huh.

[DND 2,354]

It's fashion. It's basically saying that hoodies are sometimes useless because people wear em' when they're not needed. It's just as simple as that. 

[Sylentmana 271]

Its just a horse thing. They are more like clothing the ponies wear as personal decoration. It was probably put in because it would be something that we would recognize as something a horse would wear. As the show goes on, you see less and less saddles and more clothing.