'68 SEATS AND SADDLES. 



we can never bring too great an amount of the surface^ 

 of our seat and legs into contact with the saddle. TJ>e 

 friction arising from absolute weight no rider will be 

 inclined to increase by loading himself. Whether that 

 derived from musoular action shall become an impor- 

 tant addition to the former, or merely an indepen- 

 dent 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 to- 

 gether, 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 

 advantages 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. 



Nor is this all. " Making," as Sir F. Head sa7s, 

 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 and thumb, instead of grasping it in the full 

 hand. If the weapon kicks on being discharged, it 

 will revolve on the Imige with a vengeance ; and if 

 the horse perform a similar feat, the upper tAvo-thirds 

 of the rider's body do the same round the knee-pivot. 

 * ■ The Horse and his Eider,' p. 31. 



