148 THE ART OF TAMING HORSES. 



commends to be a single thin strap as broad as a 

 gentleman's, fastened to the stirrup-leg by a loop or slip- 

 knot, and fixed over the spring bar of the saddle by a 

 buckle like that on a man's stirrup-leather. This ar- 

 rangement, which the Colonel also recommends to 

 gentlemen, presumes that the length of the stirrup- 

 leather never requires altering more than an inch or two. 

 It is a good plan for short men when travelling, and likely 

 to ride strange horses, to carry their stirrup-leathers with 

 them, as nothing is more annoying than to have to alter 

 them in a hurry with the help of a blunt pen-knife. 



" The stirrup for ladies should be in all respects like 

 a man's, large and heavy, and open at the side, or the 

 eyelet hole, with a spring." The stirrups made small and 

 padded out of compliment to ladies' small feet are very 

 dangerous. If any padding be required to protect the 

 front of the ankle-joint, it had better be a fixture on the 

 boot. 



It is a mistake to imagine that people are dragged 

 owing to the stirrup being too large, and the foot pass- 

 ing through it; such accidents arise from the stirrup 

 being too small, and the foot clasped by the pressure of 

 the upper part on the toe and the lower part on the sole. 



Few ladies know how to dress for horse exercise, 

 although there has been a great improvement, so far as 

 taste is concerned, of late years. As to the head-dress, 

 it may be whatever is in fashion, provided it so fits the 

 head as not to require continual adjustment, often 

 needed when the hands would be better employed with 

 the reins and whip. It should shade from the sun, and 

 if used in hunting protect the nape of the neck from 

 rain. The recent fashions of wearing the plumes or 

 feathers of the ostrich, the cock, the capercailzie, the 

 pheasant, the peacock, and the kingfisher, in the riding- 



