28 THE SIOUX'S SEAT 



inches. There was no regulation pattern to them ; each 

 saddle was separately made, and constructed and orna- 

 mented according to the momentary taste and fancy of 

 the maker, or according to the materials at hand. It was 

 not a saddle of commerce. 



The bent-wood stirrups were lashed in straps also cut 

 from rawhide, slung loosely on the side pieces, and work- 

 ing back and forth into all conceivable positions. Such a 

 trifle as ill -hung stirrups the Sioux never heeded. His 

 seat was not so easily disturbed as a city swell's by one 

 hole difference in his leathers. It was generally imma- 

 terial to him whether he had any stirrups at all. His 

 seat was peculiar. His leg from crotch to knee gripped 

 in an almost perpendicular position ; from the knee down 

 it was thrown sharply back, so that his weight was sus- 

 tained solely on the crotch and the muscles of the thighs. 

 As a consequence of this seat, he pounded in his saddle 

 like a fresh recruit when riding anything but a rack or lope, 

 leaned forward like a modern track-jockey at a hand-gal- 

 lop, and stuck his heels into his pony's flanks for a hold. 

 This matter of holding on by the heels is almost univer- 

 sal among riders not civilized into the soldier's method 

 above referred to. Nine-tenths of the daily riders of the 

 world hold on by the calf and heel. How the Sioux could 

 ride as he did and escape injury from the pommel is a 

 mystery. But though smashing to atoms all the maxims 

 of equitation, ancient or modern, the old-time Sioux was 

 a good rider, and his seat was strong and effective. It 

 has been referred to as ungainly ; but in a certain sense, 

 no really strong seat can be such. Noteworthy ability is 

 generally handsome per se. 



This savage tricked up his pony's mane and tail and 

 forelock with feathers, beads, or scraps of gaudy cloth, 

 and on occasion painted him all over with a colored clay, 



