78 SEATS AND SADDLES. 



different, one begins not only to doubt its being even 

 relatively good, but also to look with a more critical 

 eye to its positive disadvantages. They are these : It 

 involves unnecessary wear and tear of the horse's fore 

 legs, because the rider's weight is with every bound 

 thrown forward into his stirrups in the direction Q P, 

 fig. 4 that is to say, exactly counter to the direction in 

 which the arm-bone ends its action ; whereas, by sit- 

 ting over the centre of motion, the shock is equally 

 divided over all four legs, and not on one pair alone. 

 This is what we meant by saying that a man may sit 

 far back and still ruin his horse's fore legs. Secondly, it 

 is not the safest method, because, if the horse fails with 

 one or both fore legs, the rider loses all his support at 

 once, the stirrup acting only as a pivot round which, 

 by means of his stiff leg, his whole body is made, by 

 the impulse received from the hind legs, to rotate and 

 perform the catapult experiment. And if a horse sud- 

 denly swerves, turns on his haunches, or comes to a 

 dead halt at a jump, the rider is most likely, through 

 the same agency, to continue the original line of move- 

 ment, whilst the horse adopts a new one, or "reposes." 

 Thirdly, this method of riding tends very forcibly to 

 making the horse convert the rider's hand into a 

 fifth leg for itself, the pull of the head on the rein 

 coming at an acute angle to the push or tread of the 

 leg in the stirrup ; and this, when carried to excess, 

 degenerates into pure rein and stirrup riding without 

 any seat, especially with horses that carry their heads 

 low. It is, however, just precisely with a hard-pulling 

 horse that a curbed bit would be so desirable, and with 

 this seat it is a matter of impossibility to use one. The 

 rule for the jockey we have seen is, never, in standing in 



