Thread: What's with the allergy to saddles?

I just saw the GORGEOUS new primal mounts we'll be getting (Link: http://jp.finalfantasyxiv.com/pr/blog/001363.html), and I noticed that once again they don't have saddles. Why is that?

It's a thing that's been bugging me for a while, but I just don't understand. The unicorn mounts don't have saddles, the primal ponies don't, the Pegasus mount doesn't... most of the mounts don't honestly. Why is this? Putting aside game physics for a moment, doesn't it just make sense to saddle up so you don't, you know, fall?

Saddles are a relatively new innovation for mankind -- heck, the stirrup caused quite a stir back in first century China.

We don't see western-style saddles because you can't saddle up a Chocobo in quite the same way as a horse. In-game there are no horses.

The only time you fall off a horse without a saddle is when you try to do something silly, like hacking at infantry while mounted, in which case you need the stirrup as well. Heck, we don't even fight while mounted on Chocobos (our mounts are smarter than we are...)

Nevertheless, the innovation is clearly there since we've developed the concept enough to invent SOME kind of cushioning while riding a chocobo, behemoth, Midgardsormer, or griffon (those are the ones I know off the top of my head). It's not unreasonable to assume we could work out saddles for horses, or borrow the designs from areas like Doma where they DO exist.

Nor is it unreasonable to assume we could work out saddles for the more esoteric creatures like Amalj'aa drakes. Putting aside chafing issues (because drake spines = ouch in any species) it seems ridiculous for us to have this concept for some, but not all.

YOU try putting a saddle on an arcane creature of incomprehensible power and see how that works out for you. Don't come crying to me when it runs off or tries to eat you.


I just went through my collection of mounts, and most of our more 'tame' mounts do, in fact, have saddles. The only one that doesn't is the Cavalry Drake, which does seem like a strange oversight. The only other mounts that lack saddles are the Ahriman, the Kirin and the various unicorn pallet swaps (including the pegasus), which are all wild or magical creatures who might be kind enough to let us ride them, but might not take well to our attempting to strap something to their backs. Even that cranky old dragon Midgardsormr was kind enough to provide us with a saddle.

If you're interested in a horse-style mount with a saddle, there's the three company war steeds available for winning 100 frontlines matches as a member of one Grand Company, which is a nice, ordinary Doman horse with a swanky saddle and barding emblazoned with your GC's crest.

Cavalry Drake lacks a saddle and I'm glad. It's aesthetically pleasing to me and I'm happy they left it's 1.0 model alone, besides removing the body glow at its' sides that they had .