TOUR OF THE MUSEUM Part 9 The Mail Coach Guard

The Mail Coach Guard was the only Post Office employee on board the coach and wore an official uniform of scarlet coat with gold braid and blue facings. Guards used their 3ft. long horn, a yard of tin, to warn other road users to keep out of their way and to single to toll-keepers to let the coach through. It was also used to order a fresh team of horses while a furlong away from the staging stop so that when they arrived a change of horses was ready and waiting.
The regular mail was carried in a box the key for which can be seen attached to the leather bag carried around the guards neck which would have held the more important mail.
It was the responsibility of the guard to ensure that the mail got through and in order to protect the mail, the coach and its inhabitant, the guard was heavily armed with a blunderbuss and a pair of pistols.
In order to deliver the mail it was necessary of many occasions, when the coach was caught in snow drifts, to unhitch a pair of horses and proceed of horseback.

The coat seen here in the museum is adapted from an old frock style hunting coat and gives an insight into the traditional dress of the Mail Coach Guards.

TOUR OF THE MUSEUM Part 8 Show Farm Bridle

Every year the Royal Dublin Society host the National Craft Competition with the winners invited to display their work at the Dublin Horse Show. This stylish bridle was made by the museum's curator Rob Steinke for the 1997 competition and exhibited at that years show.It was made to fit a Clydesdale work horse and was cut, prepared and stitched entirely by hand. Note the rolled throat lash, the intricate fancy stitching on the head piece and the swelled cheekpieces. The head and browband have been lined in red patent leather and holes punched into the black leather to show the red underneath. The browband is made up with approx 40 individual brass clincher pieces and the rosettes are of the old styled beehive design.
The picture also shows some of the tools used to make this bridle, many of which are 100 years old.

TOUR OF THE MUSEUM Part 7 Victorian Child's Side Saddle

One of the most rare exhibits in the museum is a Victorian children's side saddle. This beautifully made saddle is hand stitched throughout with intricate leaf designs on the seat and flaps.

The saddle is not made on a traditional wooden tree but in the form of a flexible type pad to suit a younger rider. Contrary to popular belief, a lady or young girl does not sit to the side on a side saddle but with the shoulders, spine and hips in a straight line facing the front of the horse or pony. The lower part of the body then turns so that both legs are on the near side (left hand side). This can cause an imbalance in a young girls growth if they were to ride like this each day.

There were two ways to compensate for this. One way was to have two side saddles, one with the curved pommel on the near side and another to have a saddle with the pommel on the right hand side and for the young girl to alternate between the two saddles.

Another way, and this is how this particular side saddle is made, was to have a pommel that could be unscrewed from one side and fitted easily to the other. This way the rider would only have to have one side saddle.

The underneath of the side saddle showing the two straps that attach to the girth which holds the saddle to the pony. The large stitches are the quilting that holds the wool padding in place between the leather panel and the surge wool lining.

The museum would like to thank Annabel Cahill for this exhibit.