COVERING OF SADDLES. 129 



discussion. It is evident that the only valid argument which 

 can be advanced in favour of the former as compared to the 

 latter, is that of superiority of grip. Many advocates of plain 

 flaps assert that they can stick on quite as well without knee- 

 rolls as with them ; but such a statement is merely an 

 expression of opinion, which cannot be accepted as a proof. 

 Some go even so far as to say that knee-rolls on a saddle are 

 a source of danger ; because, if a rider in such a saddle, while 

 trying to " remain," happens to become displaced so far 

 forward as to get his knees in front of the rolls, he would 

 have great difficulty in getting them back into position. The 

 reply to this is of course, that had he been shot forward with 

 similar force when in a plain-flap saddle, he would have come 

 off. Instead of imagining supposititious cases and considering 

 individual opinions, we are far more likely to arrive at a true 

 solution of the question by enquiring into the nature of the 

 saddles used by men, who, as a business, ride extremely diffi- 

 cult horses ; for instance, Australian rough-riders. These high 

 priests of the art of sticking-on, habitually employ saddles 

 which have enormously large knee-rolls. My friend, Steve 

 Margarett, an Englishman who made a great reputation in 

 the Colonies for his skill in riding buck-jumpers, was one of 

 the few men in Australia capable of doing so in an English 

 hunting saddle, a feat which he and all the other rough-riders 

 regarded as being particularly difficult. Also, the use of knee- 

 rolls in steeplechase saddles, even by the finest horsemen, is a 

 point in their favour for the purpose under discussion. On the 

 other hand, although an ordinary plain-flap hunting saddle 

 may not afford sufficient " gum " for the riding of buck- 

 jumpers by men who have not practically studied that art, it 

 is amply sufficient for every useful requirement of good riders 

 in the hunting field. If the owner wishes to obtain extra 

 security from falling out of such a saddle, he may have some 

 stuffing put into the panel just in front of the spot where the 



9 



