SEATS. 87 



ing in trot under riders that adopt the very "lofty" 

 English style ; the centre of gravity gets a couple of 

 feet farther away from the basis, which is just equi- 

 valent to the latter being decreased proportionately. 

 Every one knows that a man with a long back and 

 short legs rides heavier than a long-legged one. 



It is scarcely necessary, after what has been already 

 said, to demonstrate over again how conducive to handi- 

 ness, perfect mastery over the horse, independence of 

 the rein, and therefore good bitting, a central position 

 of the saddle, stirrups, and seat must be ; and these are, 

 we take it, the conditions under which road-riding 

 may be done safely and agreeably. High speed not 

 being the object, nothing can be gained by throwing 

 the rider's weight forward ; on the contrary, it has this 

 further positive disadvantage in addition to those al- 

 ready pointed out. Corns with our horses are as equally 

 prevalent as broken knees, and the latter are very fre- 

 quently a consequence of the former. Now we have 

 shown (see fig. 2, C) that the consequence of throwing 

 the weight forward is to make the horse overstep with 

 his hind foot the track of the corresponding fore foot ; 

 and this being very much our habit, our horses do 

 very frequently overstep, and by so doing the risk is 

 run of tearing off the fore shoes. We have got into the 

 habit of using very short shoes, the web of which does 

 not overlap sufficiently, at the heel, the angle formed by 

 the frog with the wall of the hoof, but falling short, 

 throws the whole pressure inside this angle. This is 

 what produces corns. For racing, certainly, and perhaps 

 for hunting, the short shoe may be inevitable, but 

 there is no reason whatever why the roadster should 

 be shod in this fashion, nor even a cavalry horse, ex- 



