488 SADDLING. 



PREPARING A HORSE FOR THE SADDLE OR HARNESS. 



The horses should be backed out of the stall with the 

 blanket and head-collar on and fastened to a pair of pillar- 

 reins. First, the feet should be picked out, the straws, etc., 

 dropped into a basket and not on the floor; second, the eyes, 

 nostrils, mouth and parts under the tail should be washed 

 out with a clean sponge, and afterwards dried with a rubber ; 

 third, the blanket should now be removed and folded over 

 the blanket pole, and the horse's coat laid smooth with a 

 rubber or chamois. If the owner approves of varnishing the 

 hoofs, this part of the work should now be done in order to 

 give the coating time to set. 



SADDLING. 



The saddle should be prepared in the harness 

 or cleaning room by being dusted, the girths 

 buckled on the off side. i. e., the right-hand side, 

 and the girths either laid over the seat of the 

 saddle or kept from dangling by being folded be- 

 tween the flap and the sweat-flap. The stirrup 

 leathers should be run through the stirrups and attached to 

 the spring-bars — the latter should always be left open — 

 and the stirrups drawn up out of the way on the under sec- 

 tion of the stirrup leather. A man's saddle should be 

 carried on the right forearm with the pommel toward the 

 hand. A woman's saddle may be carried in the same man- 

 ner or on the servant's head. A horse should never be 

 saddled in the stall or placed in one with a saddle on, as 

 the chances are that the servant will turn the horse in the 

 narrow space, and in so doing spread the tree of the saddle. 

 The saddle should be laid on the horse's back so that the 



