THE FIELD 127 



turned to the sun or the breeze. The outer or leather 

 part should be well dressed, with plenty of hand rub- 

 bing, and all the grease of the dressing should be 

 carefully removed before the saddle is used again. 

 We have seen saddles brought out which shone all 

 over, but were as slippery as glass, and in which their 

 users either slipped about all day, or to which they 

 almost stuck when they had established a seat. 



Stirrup leathers, too, need careful treatment, a good 

 deal of dressing, and a lot of hand rubbing. A stiff 

 stirrup leather is more apt to snap than one which has 

 become pliable through treatment. And apropos of 

 stirrup leathers we heard a very hard rider say last 

 winter that he invariably broke half a dozen in the 

 course of a season, and that he could in no way account 

 for it, except on the ground that bad leather was used. 

 Had our friend been a duffer we should have under- 

 stood that he went to a bad saddler, but as a matter of 

 fact he is quite an exceptional man, and possibly at the 

 moment has won more point-to-point races than any 

 man in the kingdom. He has, too, hunted since he 

 was a child, and has always been a four and five days' 

 a week man, who has looked over all details of his 

 hunting establishment himself. It was not surprising, 

 then, to hear that he had had consignments of leathers 

 from some of the best-known saddlers in the kingdom, 

 and therefore one was obliged to conclude that the 

 frequent breakages were brought about in schooling 

 young horses over awkward places, and that the strain 

 imposed by a half-fall and recovery was in a con- 

 siderable degree accountable for the breaks. 



The beginner, then, must see to it that his saddle and 

 bridle are good, well cleaned, and properly put on, but 

 he must also make a point of having his horse well 



