LEAPING HEAD. 33 



apt to form in the panel, with the frequent result of a 

 sore back. Although the stuffing of side-saddles is 

 too technical a subject to attack in these pages, I would 

 fail in my duty to 'my readers if I omitted to advise 

 them always to go to a first-class saddler for a new 

 saddle, or to get an old one re-stuffed, which should be 

 done as may be required, preferably, before the begin- 

 ning of the hunting season, supposing that the saddle 

 has seen a good deal of service. It is often thought 

 that expert saddlers are to be found only in London ; 

 but if a saddler is clever at his trade, the fact of his 

 having a shop in a good hunting district, must be a 

 great advantage to him in studying the requirements 

 of riding people. 



THE LEAPING HEAD 



was invented about 1830 by M. Pellier, who was well 

 known in Paris as a riding master. Its object is 

 to help the rider to obtain security of seat by a fixed 

 surface against which she can press the front and lower 

 part of her left thigh. Before the invention of the 

 leaping head, ladies had to rely entirely on the right leg 

 for grip, and consequently few, if any of them, were 

 able to hunt. Mr. John Allen, who wrote Modern 

 Riding, in 1825, tells us that " the left leg is nearly, if 

 not wholly useless ; for though a stirrup is placed on the 

 foot, the only use of it is to ease the leg a little, which, 

 for want of practice, might ache by dangling and 

 suspension." 



3 



