SADDLES AND SORE BACKS. 201 



The stitching around the chamber must be sufficiently close to 

 prevent the stuffing finding its way between them into the chamber, and 

 the hair must be pressed well up against the stitches in order to keep the 

 chamber deep. 



A chamber once made requires looking to daily ; every time the 

 saddle is taken off it should be inspected to ascertain that the sore is 

 not pressed upon, for the tendency of all pannels is to become thinner 

 under compression, and as they get thinner the chamber gradually becomes 

 obliterated or nearly so. It would not be possible to make a useful 

 chamber in a thin pannel without adding stuffing. 



Pannels naturally settle down more when they are in a new state than 

 after they have been in use some time ; the compression a new pannel 

 undergoes has to be seen to be appreciated ; the hair gradually works 

 itself into a close felted cake, and to prevent this going too far pannels 

 are occasionally pricked up with an instrument like an awl ; this can only 

 be done by a saddler. 



The golden rule in dealing with pannels should be never to interfere 

 with them unless they require it, for a pannel soon takes the impression 

 of the part on which it rests, and in this way adjusts itself to the slope 

 of the back. To disturb this unnecessarily would be a mistake. 



Numnahs are not used with pack saddles ; the function of any 

 numnah is to prevent the sweat from the animal passing into the pannel 

 or blanket. It is, perhaps, unfortunate that some means is not adopted 

 to keep the lining of pack saddles clean, for caking occurs on the pannels 

 through wet and accumulation of filth from the skin, and in consequence 

 they get dry and hard. They can be cleaned by drying, brushing, and 

 beating lightly with a stick. 



Collars and Sore Shoulders. 



It will assist considerably in understanding the horse's requirements 

 in collar fitting if we study very briefly the shape of the shoulders and 

 the movements they undergo. 



Movement of shoulders. — We have seen (p. 158) that the shoulder Move- 

 blades are constantly moving backwards and forwards. For the ment of 

 purpose of collar fitting we have to bear in mind that while one shoulder shoulders, 

 is coming forward, the other is going backward, so that at no time is the 

 collar resting on a perfectly parallel surface — such as the two shoulders 

 at rest represent — but always on an oblique one. This backward and 

 forward movement produces considerable oscillation in a collar, which 

 may readily be seen by leading a horse along with the collar lying on the 



