308 EESTIVEXESS: ITS PEEVENTIOX AND CUEE. 



horse's head and neck to the required position demands 

 a certain amout oi fixity of the spinal column, for 

 t!ie work to be done by the arms brings into play the 

 muscles of the entire back. The rider that comes into 

 antagonism with his horse is only then safe in his seat 

 when his own centres of gravity and motion fall in the 

 same perpendicular line with the horse's centre of mo- 

 tion, otherwise he will have to contend with the cen- 

 trifugal motion by dint of muscular exertion alone. 



Now, for a man standing upright, the centre of gra- 

 vity is in the perpendicular from the base of the skul], 

 and the centre of motion is at the point where this 

 line intersects a horizontal line drawn through both 

 Lip-joints. If the rider sits upright, on his " triangle" 

 (as explained above), and in the middle of his saddle, 

 this being in the right place, his legs will, unless the 

 stirrups obstruct, come of themselves into such a posi- 

 tion that his own centres of gravity and motion will 

 V>e directly over and very close^to the centre of motion 

 < 'f the horse. What Englishmen are pleased t ;> call 

 " a stuck-up seat" may be the result, perhaps, espe- 

 cially if the rider be awkward ; but it is not a question 

 of taste or fashion, but of attaining certain definite ob- 

 jects which remain otherwise unattainable ; for no one 

 will pretend that the position assumed by the hunting 

 man for the purpose of making his horse thr(jw its 

 weight on the fore legs, with its head and neck well 

 down and extended, can also serve the exactly opposite 

 purpose we have in view in the coiTCction of vicious 

 a'-iimals. 



A word with regard to the whip and its use will not 

 be out of place. The effect of this instrument depends 

 altogether on the part of the horse's body to which it 



