40 Modern Riding and Horse Education 



the last thirty years or so tells me that before Tod 

 Sloan's appearance on the English turf in 1897 the 

 flat-racing seat had got into a ridiculous extreme, 

 most of the jockeys riding as if they had pokers 

 down their backs, which had by no means been the 

 case in the days of Tom Cannon, Archer, and Ford- 

 ham, the last named having indeed often been 

 spoken of as looking like a monkey on a horse. 

 The first exponent of the American flat-racing seat 

 (Plate II) in England was Sims, who rode Eau 

 Gallic in the Crawford Plate at Newmarket in 1895, 

 but it was left to Tod Sloan two years later to reap 

 historic successes. He was a marvelous horseman, 

 and for a time at least had few rivals in the new art, 

 which is eminently one either to excel in or to let 

 alone. Good judges will tell you that there are only 

 half a dozen jockeys on the English turf who are 

 first-class riders in the new style, and that the re- 

 mainder would do very much better to go back to 

 the old methods, but this they are hardly likely to do, 

 and even steeplechase jockeys are shortening their 

 stirrups, two notable examples being Parfrement 

 (the French jockey), and Newry, both winners of 

 the Grand National at Liverpool. 



