SADDLES AND SORE HACKS. 179 



Should the saddle under examination be in possession of hair pannels, 

 and these found to be pressing on the shoulder-blades or loins, the hair 

 must be forced backwards out of the part by means of an awl, and the 

 part of the pannel corresponding to the " burr '"' or " fans " stitched across 

 to keep the hair trom re-entering. (Fig. 35.) 



Assuming we have remedied all the above defects, the saddle should be 

 ridden in, say, for half an hour, and the next step is to ascertain whether 

 the pressure of the side bars is evenly distributed ; this can be learned in 

 the following way. 



The saddle is carefully ungirthed, the nummah straps unbuckled, and Ungirth 

 the tree lifted from the blanket without in the least disturbing it. The 



Fig. 35. 

 . View of pannel with the stuffing arranged to keep pressure oft 

 the blade-bones and loins. 



blanket will be found to bear the imprint of the side bars, and an and note 

 examination of this depression shows at a glance whether they are ^'?\P''I^^ ^^ 

 pressing evenly from top to bottom and from front to rear. '^"^ ^^^^' 



The examination has to be rapidly made, as the blanket through its 

 elasticity soon loses the impression of the side bars and the mark of the 

 latter becomes obliterated. 



The most usual places to find excessive pressure are at the top edge 

 of the side bar behind the front arch, and the bottom edge in front of 

 the rear arch, and if there is a deeper impression on the blanket in 

 these situations than any other portion of the bar, we may accordingly 

 say with certainty that the pressure is not evenly distributed and that 

 the parts of the back corresponding with the more marked impressions 

 are receiving an undue amount of the weight. This with a horse in 

 (b 10948) M 2 



