1) Armour for a knight's horse, covering both breast and flanks; sometimes mail was used; also the decorative material, often velvet, covering the same parts of the animal's body. (By the 18c the term had been reduced to meaning a strip of bacon used to cover a chicken in the oven.) [< Ar. bard'a = saddle cloth, a saddle with stuffing]
2 [bardings]. Her. A horse's trappings, sometimes with the owner's arms. [< Ar. bard'a = a saddle cloth]
Cf. Bard1
3) Irish or Welsh poet.
Dictionary of Medieval Terms and Phrases. Christopher Coredon with Ann Williams.