80 SEATS AND SADDLES. 



his stirrups, to depend for seat to any extent on liis reinsr;]i 

 Why this should be neglected in hunting is not eas>j^ 

 to understand. The Cossacks and Circassians, who all \ 

 ride with a snaffle, and do wonderful things with it, sit 

 perfectly independent of the rein : any one can make 

 his horse equally light in the hand with a snaffle as 

 theirs are, by making his seat as independent of the 

 reins and stirrups, or use a curbed bit in hunting if he 

 pleases. It is the close steady seat that makes the 

 hand light and the horse's mouth soft ; and therefore it 

 is much more valuable in teaching to make the young 

 riders dispense altogether with the reins than with the 

 stirrups, and may be done sooner. 



Apropos of rising in the stirrups, — " either to avoid 

 a kick, or in jumping a large fence, the rider, by merely, 

 rising in his stirrups, at once raises or abstracts from 

 the saddle the point his enemy intends to attack, and 

 accordingly the blow aimed at it fails to reach it."* On 

 the contrary, Mr. Apperley says, "When hounds find 

 and go away, place yourself well down in your saddle, 

 on your fork or twist, and don't be standing up in your 

 stirrups (as formerly was the fashion, a7id the cause of 

 many a dislocated neck), sticking out your rump as if 

 it did not belong to you." Who shall decide when such 

 high authorities differ 1 But perhaps the difference 

 is more specious than real. Mr. Apperley says, "ujell 

 down in your saddle," which, we take it, will bring a 

 man very near to the middle of that piece of furni- 

 ture, and probably to the horse's centre of motion. 

 Here the necessity for avoiding the blow does not arise, 

 it is the point of least motion ; but if a man sits well 

 back in his saddle, d la wash-ball, he gets much nearer 

 * Sir F. Head, as above. 



