THE SADDLE. 185 



a hole is cut to admit the trace. In single harness the 

 hame-tug is made about one foot long from the end of the 

 trace-buckle to the end of the eye of the clip, so that the 

 trace-buckles fall short of the saddle. In pair-horse harness 

 the hame-tug is made according to the size of the horse. 

 About nineteen inches is the average length. The trace- 

 buckle is attached to the saddle by means of a tug-strap 

 which should lie squarely in line with the centre of the 

 saddle. As the length of the hame-tug cannot be adjusted, 

 it follows that any miscalculation must be counteracted by 

 changing the position of the saddle, which is wrong in 

 principle. 



The trace-buckle in pair-horse harness is usually made 

 with a crescent shaped metal loop on the upper and under 

 side. To the top loop the buckle end of the tug-strap is 

 sewed, and to the bottom one is attached the point-strap, 

 which fastens into the buckle of the trace-girth. For road- 

 coach harness the metal loops of the trace-buckle are dis- 

 pensed with and the tug-straps are looped around the sides 

 of the buckles instead of being sewed in. This latter form 

 is called the Newmarket tug. 



THE SADDLE. 



The Saddle or Pad (see Fig. 70) should be fitted to the 

 horse's back. This is of especial importance when the saddle 

 is for a " two-wheeler." The pad-girth should be so propor- 

 tioned that the point of the strap will not be left dangling or 

 the loops remain all or partly empty when the saddle is in place 

 on the horse. The outlines should be preferably straight, 

 not curved, and the surface free from any fancy designs in 

 stitching. The flap and skirt of the saddle are generally 



