unsaddle

present singular third person unsaddles · participle present unsaddling · participle past unsaddled · past unsaddled

1. intransitivetransitiveTo remove a saddle.

   It was nigh noon, and we had stopped at the cabin to unsaddle and bait.

   1857, Herman Melville, chapter 25, in The Confidence-Man, New York: Dix, Edwards & Co, page 220

   3 more examples

   […] sette him vppe, and tye him in his bridle to the bare Racke, and all to rubbe and chafe him, insomuch that if hee be eyther wette with sweate or any other thing, you leaue hym not till he be as dry as may be, then vnsaddle him, rub hys backe thorowly […]

   1593, Gervase Markham, chapter 3, in A Discource of Horsmanshippe, London: Richard Smith

   She’s gone, by the Lord! fairly stole away, with that poaching, concy-catching rascal! However, I won’t follow her; no, damme; take my whip, and my cap, and my coat, and order the groom to unsaddle the horses; I won’t follow her the length of a spur-leather.

   1773, Isaac Bickerstaffe, A School for Fathers, London: W. Griffin, act III, scene 6, page 60

   Because this was the normal way of going to school the schoolhouse was provided with a paddock; the children rode in and unsaddled, hung their saddles and bridles on the fence, and went in to their lessons.

   1952, Neville Shute, chapter 1, in The Far Country, London: Heinemann

2. transitiveTo throw (a rider) from the saddle.