For Gulf Wars of 2004 His Majesty Gareth requested volunteer artisans to craft individual gifts for the visiting Royals of Gulf Wars. Upon volunteering I was given the task of creating something for His Majesty Henri Roi, King of Aethelmearc (who was reigning without a Queen). One of His Majesties' interests was in the Equestrian Arts so I chose to create an item of Horse Barding with his personal Arms. The Gift Coordinator, Mistress Theodelinda of Wenlock, desired that we include any documentation that we might have used. You can find that documentation (here). It includes the rational for the choices I made and brief instructions on how to create the barding Unfortunately it did not occur to me to take a photograph of the finished reins. They alternated black and white escutcheons with the Tau cross affixed to each one in the opposite color. These escutcheons were affixed directly to a set of reins. Below you will see the images that I based my design on.
	This is a detail of an image from MS 755, f. 275v found in the Pierpont Morgan Library. The image depicts a joust in a 15th century German town square. This image most closely resembled His Majesties personal arms which were Per bend Sinister Argent and Sable, two Tau crosses counterchanged. This is a detail of an English illustration of a melee circa 1450. (BL MS Harley 326 f.133). It is a similar treatment of the rein barding, but with the colors of the panels changing from one color to another - which is what I determined would be best, as opposed to attempting to counterchange on each escutcheon. Putting two Tau crosses on each panel would have resulted in the crosses being so small as to be unidentifiable. Not a desirable trait in good heraldic display! Finally, this is a detail from the 15th Century French treatise on Tournaments made for Rene d'Anjou. It clearly depicts that the decorative rein barding is affixed separately from the rein being used to actually control the horse. With this evidence I decided I could make an entirely separate set of reins that could be added onto the horse's attire.