The last pattern of Driver's Saddle was the Driver's Steel Arch, which was a contemporary of the 1890 UP.

 

The front arch was of in the form of a #2 size 1890 UP, while the rear arch was angle steel, in the same form as the rear angle iron arch of the previous Mark II angkle iron saddle

 

Like the 1890 UP, the Driver' originally had points on the pommel arch. It also had long fans on the sidebars. In LOC #13942  saddles were modified by having both these features removed. The points on the pommel arch were cut off flush with the bottom of the side-bars, and the sidebars themselves were reshaped by having the fans considerably shortened.

 

New shorter numnah pannels were introduced which were unique to the Driver's Saddle, with the pocket for the point of the arch also omited.

 

These saddles, while officially superceeded by the 1902 UP, are evident in use as late as WWI (a situation which is also true for 1890 UP's). This is due to the fact that the superceded saddes were ordered to be issued until the supply was exhausted (this was standard practice).

 

The saddle lacks a cantle spoon, as a luggage saddle was available on the offside horse to carry equipment. While there construction is very similar to the 1890 UP with V-attachments, they have a wrought iron trace hanger rivited to the side-bar at the cantle arch. Numnahs are not interchangeable with 1902 UP's, even on the Driver's Saddles modified by LOC 13942.

 

When originally issued the proportion of Driver's with numnah pannels was small; the majority were issued with numnah pads. After the side-bar modification the new numnah pannel became universal.