I've heard a persistant rumour that merchants have finally developed working
barding for mounts. New models are claimed to be more durable, generally
better and easyer to fix. Whether this absolute truth or not is hard to say,
since merchants are known for their desire to hide their trade secrets in fear
of competition stealing their product designs...

But as a tip for those, who still think their brand new diamond barding will
rot away in one boot, you might want to try some of the newer models merchants
are selling.