42 HUNTING SEATS AND RACING SEATS. 



for the purpose that Nimrod seems to expect horses 

 to use theirs. Depend on it they were made to carry 

 them, but not to break timber with. 



There are other advantages we derive from having 

 made racing one of our pursuits. It gives a close 

 firm seat ; teaches us to hold our horse together ; 

 and, above all, nothing so much instructs in the 

 feeling of when a horse is tiring : it teaches the 

 necessity of taking a pull at him in proper time ; in 

 all of which things, as far as I can judge, our ances- 

 tors were very deficient. Pace has taught the 

 absolute necessity of practising them. I have heard 

 very old sportsmen say they hardly ever knew a man 

 who was accustomed to riding over the flat ride well 

 over a country. This shows that the hunting or 

 racing men of those days were not mixed up with 

 each other as they now are. But besides this, in 

 those days racing riders, when standing in their 

 stirrups, could only be compared to a man standing 

 on his feet with a Newfoundland dog between his 

 legs, thus leaving room for an ordinary pointer 

 between the seat and the saddle. No man with such 

 a seat could cross a country, and no jockey with such 

 a one should ever have crossed a race-horse : but now 

 our hunting men are not seen with the old loose 

 s wagging seat of former fox-hunters, nor are jocks 

 seen with their knees up to their chins when sitting 

 down on their saddle, except old Tommy Lye ; but 

 then he rides so well that it is fair to let him ride as 

 he likes. In one way I would never wish to see a 

 man ride like him ; in another, I must pay him the 

 just compliment of saying very few can. Now all 

 these hints we may, and now do, take from racing, 

 either by practice or observation. Though of course 



