48 SADDLING. 



girth, or what is vulgarly called " herring-gutted," and 

 is used to prevent the saddle from getting too far 

 back, or, as the grooms say, the horse "running 

 through his girths." Animals trained to such trying 

 •work as steeplechasing, or even hunting, will become 

 much smaller in the carcass than a trooper or an 

 ordinary gentleman's hack. 



With dragoons this part of the equipment is gene- 

 rally ill-adjusted, as if to correspond with the inefficient 

 arrangement of the crupper, the breast -straps being 

 often too tight. Frequently, during manoeuvring in 

 the field or the riding-school, I have seen breast-straps 

 burst in consequence of their tightness; and indeed it 

 stands to reason they can thus but interfere with a 

 horse's action in leaping or making more than ordinary 

 exertion. Their tightness not only renders discomfiture 

 imminent, but must drag the saddle forward out of its 

 place. 



Altogether it might be desirable that commanding 

 officers of some cavalry regiments would study the pose 

 on horseback of Marochetti's sculptured dragoons, or 

 those of other eminent artists. The result would pro- 

 bably be a marked improvement in the position of the 

 saddle, and, consequently, in the general cou}:) cVoeil of 

 our cavalry, who, however, notwithstanding such minor 

 defects, have always maintained their superiority in 

 horsemanship, as well as in efficiency, over any other 

 cavalry in the world. 



