Question About Cavalry in General, during Ancient Times

[Watchman]

What source(s) is this based on?

Caesar, De Bello Gallico(sp?)...? I understand he observes the German mounted warriors thought saddles a "crutch" unbecoming and unworthy of a true horseman.

Only the evidence doesn't really support this. I only know of one source that unambiguously shows a Hellenistic cavalryman with a saddle, a 2nd c. BC stele from Apollonia, and concurrent with this we find depictions of cavalrymen unambiguously riding with saddlecloth only. It's a difficult subject to investigate because much of the time artists either omitted the riding equipment altogether or it is covered by some object (usually a large shield).

Nevermind now the man's assorted body parts, clothes, armour etc. getting in the way. Most artists probably wouldn't have bothered, certainly, but that's not very useful one way or another. You don't happen to know of any archeology that might shed light on the subject ?