HOW TO BIDE. 23 



The advocates of beginning without stirrups say you must first give the 

 pupil a seat, and then when he has acquired balance and a hold of his horse, 

 you can give him the additional assistance of the stirrups. Now, the most 

 difficult thing to attain is balance, and the stirrup was devised for the pur- 

 pose of assisting in acquiring and maintaining it ; and it is therefore just 

 as reasonable to act in this manner as it would be to set a boy to learn swim- 

 ming without corks or bladders, and when he learned to support himself in 

 the water give him these artificial aids. But there is another objection ; 

 namely, that the pupil first acquires one seat, and afterwards is expected to 

 change it for another and better one. 



Long experience in training recruits has resulted in the conviction that 

 it is much better, and in the end more expeditious, to give the young rider 

 stirrups from tlie beginning; and when he has acquired a certain amount of 

 confidence and balance you may take away the stirrups to perfect the latter, 

 without running tlie least risk of destroying the former. 



THE JOCKEY'S SADDLE AND SEAT. 



The saddle is placed just over the fourteenth vertebra; it is of such 

 small dimensions that the rider can only sit on one spot, and under this, or 

 very nearly so, the girtlis are attached, and the stirrups suspended ; nay, 

 still further, a surcingle passing over the exact centre of the saddle is 

 generally employed. The length of the stirrups should, according to the 

 best authorities, be sucli as just to enable the jock to clear his saddle when 

 he stands in them, but never so long as to make him depend on the reins 

 in the least for his upright position ; therefore, when he does stand in the 

 stirrups, he transfers, through them, his weight to the centre of the saddle, 

 without, of course, disturbing the general equilibrium of his horse. When 

 he wishes to bring the centre of gravity more forward — which favors, as 



