I 3 2 SADDLERY. 



The advantages of the short panel are that it is the 

 lighter of the two, owing to less material being required in 

 its construction ; and that it allows the rider's legs to get 

 closer to the horse's sides than they would do with a 

 full-sized panel. Also, the smaller the serge-lined panel 

 is, the less liable will it be to collect sweat. Its dis- 

 advantage is that with it, the sweat flap is the only 

 protection which the animal's ribs have against possibly 

 painful pressure by means of the buckles of the girths ; 

 but this drawback can be easily obviated by increasing 

 the thickness of the sweat flap. To remove these 

 girths out of the undesirable position which they usually 

 occupy underneath the flaps, Lord Lonsdale has introduced 

 the method of employing a short broad girth and par- 

 ticularly long girth straps (Figs. 131 and 132), so that 

 the buckles will come below the swell of the animal's 

 chest, and consequently will not interfere with the rider's 

 legs, which they are always more or less liable to do 

 when high up. The only objection to Lord Lonsdale's 

 plan is that the appearance of the buckles below the flaps 

 of the saddle is apt to be unsightly to unaccustomed 

 eyes. The fact that the buckles in this method of girthing 

 are free from the pressure of the legs, appears to entirely 

 obviate any chance there might be of their hurting the 

 horse by pressing against his sides, especially when, as with 

 Lord Lonsdale's arrangement, there is a thick broad leather 

 strap between the buckles and the horse's skin. 



The "open gullet" or "open channel" (Fig. 130), should 

 be used with all saddles, because it helps to keep the centre 

 line of the back cool. 



The chief materials employed for stuffing panels are : curled 

 horse hair, "flock" of various qualities, and felt. Curled 

 horse hair fulfils every requirement of softness, elasticity and 

 freedom from caking, but it cannot be so easily " awled " 



