138 Modern Riding and Horse Education 



and acquires the valuable habit of leaning inwards 

 without risk of a fall when the horse turns. Fur- 

 thermore, the beginner can rise to the trot, and thus 

 avoid the discomfort of continual bumping. Later 

 on, riding without stirrups can be given in gradu- 

 ally increased doses. I have never experienced the 

 slightest difficulty in getting a pupil well down into 

 his seat with this system of instruction, even when 

 the saddle has been a high arched one. Falls, how- 

 ever, cannot be avoided when side-balance is lost 

 beyond a certain point : when this occurs, the man's 

 leg flies out and he comes off. What might, on the 

 other hand, be called fore-and-aft balance, or the 

 balance applied by the rider in jumping, receives but 

 little assistance from the stirrups, which are free to 

 swing backwards and forwards. With a careful in- 

 structor the risk of dragging is so small as to be 

 hardly w^orth considering, but safety stirrups are, of 

 course, a good thing if available. 



Some of the early-pattern irons had a swivel at 

 the top of the arch, on which they revolved, making 

 them always handy to the rider's foot. This form of 

 stirrup was doubtless given up as unsuitable for rid- 

 ing with the foot home, as when in use the flat of 



