unsaddling

1. gerundparticiplepresentpresent participle and gerund of unsaddle

plural unsaddlings

1. countableuncountableThe act of removing a saddle.

   Suddenly it occurred to Mala why the unsaddlings and the faraway looks. All four of them were expecting something of a fairly long wait.

   1981, James Powell, chapter 16, in The Malpais Rider (A Double D Western), Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday & Company, →ISBN, page 124

   4 more examples

   Every stable is crammed with horses; and Sir Richard Grenvil’s house is like a very tavern, with eating, and drinking, and unsaddling, and running to and fro of grooms and serving-men.

   1855, Charles Kingsley, “How Amyas Came Home the First Time”, in Westward Ho!: Or, The Voyages and Adventures of Sir Amyas Leigh, Knight, […], volume I, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Macmillan & Co., →OCLC, pages 31–32

   And so through all the racket and noise of two or three saddlings and unsaddlings, he remained quite undisturbed, and came out of it much the best.

   1901, Sidney Peel, “Up to the Transvaal”, in Trooper 8008 I Y, London: Edward Arnold […], →OCLC, page 134

   He let Sandy stand for a minute and then took the saddle off. Several more of these saddlings and unsaddlings followed. Then finally the saddle was cinched. Again Sandy repeated his pattern of calming down after the first unfamiliarity of a new experience had worn off. […] Before long Sandy accepted the saddle as if he’d been born with one on his back.

   1954, Troy Nesbit [pseudonym; Franklin Folsom], “Sacking Out”, in Sand Dune Pony (Wilderness Mysteries; 1), Racine, Wis.: Whitman Publishing Company, →OCLC, page 145

   She was right about the smell, so I walked a little distance away from the bustle and hurry of unsaddling and firemaking till I came to a small irrigation channel.

   2016, Lucy Coats, Chosen, London: Orchard Books, Hachette Children’s Group, →ISBN, page 19

   Antonyms: saddling