Michael24 said:
Indy's wearing spurs? You mean, you can actually see spurs on his feet at one point? At what moment during the chase?
But how the heck can you tell the different between an American saddle and a non-American saddle?
Indy's spurs in Raiders are thin English spurs, not big cowboy spurs, so they are hard to see, but it's right when Indy is riding across the ridge, just before he rides downhill to jump on the truck. There is a shot looking down past the horse at the truck and if you look closely he is wearing short silver spurs. My computer isn't letting me play DVDs right now, otherwise I'd give you a screen capture.
I meant a regular western saddle when I said American saddle. You might be surprised at the variety in saddles between countries, as often they were designed for that country's specific types of horses and specific kinds of work. Example: American cowboys (chunky Quarter horses and Western saddles for roping cows) versus Olympic show jumpers (usually lean European horses and English saddles for jumping fences). Saddles 101:
Left to right: Western (American) saddle, Australian stock saddle, English saddle. All three types are available at my local American tack shop, the styles just originated in different countries. These photos are of miniature saddles I own.
Fancy Arabian saddles- the red one is similar to (but much fancier than) the one Indy's white horse has in Raiders. The other two are Arabian/Bedouin show saddles. If you'd like to see more pictures of saddles from other countries, I suggest taking a look at
http://www.aeon-systems.net/narrawin/gearcollect.html
And, back on topic. Here's a screen capture of the stunt saddle from Last Crusade. I've circled the foothold in white, because it's hard to see. It's that dark blob in the center of the oval. When he's riding, it's at knee level.