THE MILITARY SEAT. 



And, as to the seat, the hunting rider can adjiist liis Aveight as he pleases ; 

 he may vary his position in the saddle, which constitutes the Avhole of the 

 dead weight ; his doing so must not necessarily give his horse a sore back 

 or bruised withers. On the other hand, the dead Aveight carried by the 

 troop horses is most usually equal to, in many cases greater than, that of 

 the rider; a shifting of the seat will, therefore, necessarily destroy not only 

 the poise of the horse, but, what is still worse, that of the saddle — and 

 this is what kills the horses, or, at least, sends them into hospital. 



The cavalry soldier's seat must be therefore fixed, and not subject to 

 variation ; in charging he must bend his body forwards, from the hips 

 upwards, in order to use his weapons, and stand in his stirrups, and this 

 will suffice to accelerate the speed of his horse. The grand rule is to 

 arrange the saddle itself and the stirrups so that the rider can only sit in 

 the proper position, that he falls naturally into it, and that it requires no 

 muscular effort to maintain it. 



If this be not the case, the moment the man becomes tired, or his horse 

 makes a rapid movement, the whole seat is lost, and the muscular effort 

 that should remain altogether available for the sabre is expended in 

 endeavoring to maintain or regain an injudicious seat. The true seat is, 

 therefore, in the middle of the saddle, whose upper surface should be so 

 formed as not to admit of any other one ; then the stirrup must be under 

 the seat, and not eight to twelve inches in front of it. For that requires 

 muscular action to keep the stirrup in a certain position at an angle to its 

 natural fall, instead of the stirrup supporting the leg as the latter falls. 

 Such a position is not maintainable for any length of time, or in sharp 

 movement. In trot, for instance, the soldier, not being permitted to rise in 

 his saddle, must seek a support which the stirrups cannot afford if they are 

 too far forward, the tread in the stirrup comes to be in the direction of the 



