About the Author

Jonathan Hopkins had a chequered career, working variously as a delivery boy, relief postman,  Butlins cashier, bulk tanker loader, tobacconist's assistant, wallpaper salesman and fitted kitchen designer. 

For the last twelve years he has fitted and repaired saddles.

A lifelong horse-keeper and long term chair of an affiliated Riding Club close to his home in South Wales, Jonathan's interest in the cavalrymen who served under the Duke of Wellington originally grew out of research into saddlery worn by troop horses of the period, for which there are no surviving patterns.