Editing Huns (section)

===Riding gear===
Riding equipment and harnesses are frequent finds from Hun-period burials.{{sfn|Kazanski|2013|p=513}} The Huns did not have [[spur]]s, and so used whips to drive their horses; the handles of such whips have been found in nomad graves.{{sfn|Maenchen-Helfen|1973|p=206}} The Huns have customarily been considered the inventors of a wooden framed [[saddle]].{{sfn|Symonenko|2017}} Maenchen-Helfen, for instance, argued that the surviving ornamentation from nomad graves dating to the Hun period showed that the saddles must have had a wooden frame.{{sfn|Maenchen-Helfen|1973|p=209-210}} However, Oleksandr Symonenko argues more recent work has shown that the Huns still used an earlier style of saddle made of padding.{{sfn|Symonenko|2017}}

The Huns are also commonly credited with having introduced the [[stirrup]] to Europe.{{sfn|Crossley|2023}} These appear to have been used by other Xiongnu successor groups in Asia from the 5th century CE onward.{{sfn|Rumschlag|2016|p=80}} However, no stirrups have been found in Hunnic burials, nor is there any textual evidence of their use.{{sfnm|1a1=Kazanski|1y=2013|1p=514 |2a1=Rumschlag|2y=2016|2p=85}} Maenchen-Helfen also argues against the Huns having used stirrups, on the grounds that there is no evidence for their use after the end of the Hun empire even though they could easily have been copied by subject peoples.{{sfn|Maenchen-Helfen|1973|p=206}} Without stirrups, the Huns would not have had the stability to fight in close combat on horseback and thus appear to have preferred fighting using bows and arrows.{{sfn|Kazanski|2013|p=513}} The lack of stirrups would have required special techniques for firing arrows from horseback.{{sfn|Rumschlag|2016|p=86}}