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I recently - finally - managed to get ahold of a large number of horses to turn enough of my archers into raiders. They are only slightly smaller than the actual Harad raider horses (true 25mm as opposed to the large 25s/small 28s in the GW LotR range) and considering they will be light horse their stature is about right. I've posed one up and the foot archers with visible pantaloons make fairly decent riders after snipping and filing out the loincloth/surcoat type thingy between the legs and reattaching the right leg. Actually, who am I kidding, I love the way the guy I posed up as a practice model looks and wish I had a working camera.

The issue is that they are French Cuirassier/Carabinier horses. Each has a large sheepskin sort of front covering to the saddle, pushed up in the front to make a hump covering the pony's neck below the mane - http://www.3rdcuirassiers.org/ - the removal of ten of which has consumed my existing file - and a small flat blanket - http://www.upnaway.com/~obees/soldiers/cavl.jpg - either a simple square or something similar to the rear barding of a Bretonnian horse - over the hindquarters. I'm leaving a few of the boxes/blanket rolls at the backs of the saddles - sitting on top of the flat blankets - and am removing all of the sheepskins based on my perception of what makes for acceptable Haradrim (read: coming from some culture between Morocco and Persia) saddle arrangements.

My two questions:

1) What's the dakka consensus on the flat blankets? File them all off? Leave on some? Only file off the triangular (Bretonnian-behind) ones?

2) Do they get stirrups? The horse's heads have somewhat elaborate systems of reins, which painting/filing could conceal or emphasize. As the Haradrim are a sort of Fantasy amalgam of a large number of cultures from across several centuries of history, I suppose I could justify it either way, but I'd like to have the option of using them as generic Berbers or Arabs as well (in spite of their strong and somewhat deliberate resemblance to these guys http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuareg) similar to the way most low-fantasy knights can be used as Europeans. Since I'm eventually doing three squadrons of twelve, I wouldn't be doing anything elaborate - just a little twist of brownstuff around the middle of the boot pushed back around the inside of the knee, similar to the appearance on most Fantasy horse.

(tangentially, the remaining 36 archers will be split 24/12 between riding some of these elephants http://www.tapirback.com/tapirgal/gifts/friends/elephants/african-elephant-action-figure-plastic-f052.htm and skirmishing on 1" round bases; the rest of the army will be 66-72 spearmen set up 24/24/18-24 on regiment stands as close order foot. Paint scheme will be dark blue robes with green banners.)

Just a quick aside -- have you tried the those elephants yet? I'm happily stealing the idea off you and thanking you for sourcing low cost animal mounts, but I'm a bit concerned the 4 inchers would look more like pygmy elephants (which is fine)?. Just wondering if I'd need bigger ones for the the boss hogs.

I'd love to see some pics of your Haradrim.

They are gonna look awsum when they are all finished, games workshop really dont try hard enough to satisfy the gamers needs anymore

I've done one up partway and have the rest cleaned up if not posed and based. The trick is to file the middle seam rather than trying to cover it with putty - a milliput blanket is slowly taking shape over the embarassing mess on his tummy. They have a ton of flash - being posable toys - but fill a chariot (2"x4") base pretty well. I can fit four archers on the back - it's big enough for a howdah somewhere between a small monster base and a GW cavalry base. Mounting the riders to either side of a 20mm square base works pretty well. Against the LotR range, they look like mature bulls or matriarchs - if anything possibly a little large, though the small ponies in my army are part of the reason for this. Height-wise they are about as tall as a Bretonnian knight in a crested helmet. They've got a seven-inch elephant on that site as well I believe. Best of all, they support the preservation of the world's largest rodent.