SADDLES. 123 



grooms and riders to girth the poor creature as tightly 

 as they can, in order, as much as is possible, to relieve 

 the breast-plate; but instead of assisting it, the grievous 

 mistake first paralyses its action, and then, if it be weak, 

 breaks it, for the following simple reasons. 



If a horse, with a belly tapering like a cone, be 

 tightly girthed, his saddle, whenever it slips backwards 

 (which it must do in ascending a steep hill or bank), 

 remains hard and fast on the part of the back to which it 

 has retired, straining against the breast-plate, whose 

 straps have not power to make it re-ascend the cone : 

 whereas if, on the contrary, the saddle of a light- 

 carcased horse be unusually loosely girthed, although 

 in ascending an acclivity the saddle slips backwards 

 until it is retained by the breast-plate, yet, the instant 

 the horse either descends a hill, or gallops upon level 

 ground, his own action, combined with the power of 

 the breast-plate straps affixed to the saddle and girths, 

 put an end to all strain upon the latter, by drawing 

 the loosely-girthed saddle forwards into its proper posi- 

 tion. And it is for this reason that horses of all shapes 

 ought to be girthed less tightly when they carry breast- 

 plates than when they are without them, and always two 

 holes looser when they are light-carcased than when they 

 are lusty. 



Formerly it was the usual custom in the hunting-field, 



