BALANCE IN RIDING 333 



I have often wondered at this insecure girthing, but the 

 secret seems to lie in the man's holding on bodily with his 

 heels just below the semicircle of the horse's barrel. As 

 you could not pull off from a cylinder a steel rod bent 

 around it, and open less than a semicircle, so, if his mus- 

 cles are rigid enough to keep his heels well pinned into 

 the steed's flanks, will the Arab remain firmly fixed in 

 place, girths or no girths. He does no more than half of 

 the rest of us, who often wear dulled spurs so as more 

 conveniently to hold on, or who else bring our horse in 

 with bloody flanks when we have not consciously used 

 our persuaders at all. 



There is a good deal in the nice balance of horseman- 

 ship, and a strong grip will often hold the saddle in place. 

 One day, many years ago, I was being shown the paces of 

 a famous stallion at Mount Sterling, Kentucky. Just as 

 the rider started out his one girth broke ; but far from 

 stopping, he only bent down, seized the dangling girth, 

 threw it across the horse's withers and went on quite un- 

 concernedly, showing the fine gait of his mount to per- 

 fect advantage, and keeping his saddle in place merely 

 ^y S^^V ^^^ balance. 



The lack of the graceful burnoose makes the Egyptian 

 Arab a less attractive horseman than his kin of Algeria 

 and Tunis. But I have seen some very neat-turned horses 

 in Upper Egypt. I remember in particular a fine four- 

 year-old I saw ridden by an Arab at Belianeh. I was 

 prosaically plodding along on my donkey towards the 

 temple, at Abydos, of old Seti of blessed artistic memory, 

 when I ran across this man. A friendly nod, an approv- 

 ing glance at his handsome iron -gray, and a couple of 

 cigarettes, quickly induced him to exhibit his horse at 

 his best. He was almost the only Arabian I have seen 

 whose head was properly in hand, who was well-gathered, 



