SEATS. 67 



of our seat and legs into contact with the saddle. The 

 friction arising from absolute weight no rider will be 

 inclined to increase by loading himself. Whether 

 that derived from muscular action shall become an 

 important addition to the former, or merely an inde- 

 pendent alternative, is, after all, the great point at issue, 

 and that which constitutes the real difference between 

 seats. Muscular action will prove an addition to the 

 friction derived from weight if both be exercised simul- 

 taneously nearly at the same point, and in the same 

 direction ; if not, the rider will have to depend alter- 

 nately on one or the other, instead of both taken 

 together, which is, of course, much less advantageous. 



In some forms of seats the rider depends almost 

 entirely on the pressure of his knees against the fore 

 part of the saddle, and relinquishes altogether the advan- 

 tages derived from steady contact of his seat with the 

 other end of it. For riding a race or a fox-hunt this 

 may answer; but muscular power is subject to waste, 

 and this method will never do for continuous exertion, 

 being much too fatiguing to the rider, and therefore 

 uncertain. 



K"or is this all. " Making," as Sir F. Head says, in 

 describing the hunting seat,* "the knee a pivot, or 

 rather hinge, and the legs beneath them the grasp," 

 is like holding a horse -pistol between the tips of 

 the fore - finger arid thumb, instead of grasping it in 

 the full hand. If the weapon kicks on being dis- 

 charged, it will revolve *on the hinge with a vengeance ; 

 and if the horse perform a similar feat,' the upper two- 

 thirds of the rider's body do the same round the knee- 

 pivot. The leg, from the knee downward, is much less 

 * 'The Horse and Ms Rider/ p. 31. 



