Seat 95 



I am persuaded that such a position, such form for arms, 

 legs, and seat, together with entire dependence on balance, 

 constitutes a way of riding at once the most natural and 

 graceful and the most secure. I never yet have seen the 

 man who, riding at all by grip, could sit down well into 

 his saddle when his horse was at a canter. In this respect 

 English riders are something shocking. At every stride 

 of the horse they go clear of their saddles with from one 

 to four inches of daylight between their saddles and them- 

 selves. Except when a horse makes some extraordinary 

 movement, a man who rides by balance never shows the 

 least bit of daylight between himself and the leather. The 

 grip man depends so much upon the pressure of his legs 

 and puts so much of his weight upon his stirrups that the 

 least jar elevates him — bump, bump, bump. 



There are doubtless many riders in England, many 

 riding-school-taught riders in America and military-taught 

 hunting men in other places, who are half or more than 

 half converted to the idea of riding by balance, who often 

 find themselves riding in this way despite all discipline to 

 the contrary. As to sitting a horse by balance when jump- 

 ing a fence, however, they shy at this or refuse to try it 

 altogether. 



In the chapter on the conformation of the hunter, on 

 the subject of shoulders, we had our say about centres of 

 gravity and the necessity that the horse should be so built 

 that in taking a fence the rider's centre of gravity should 

 come as nearly as possible over that of the horse. With a 

 horse so built and a rider so placed, riding by balance over 

 a jump is not only a possible but, in my opinion, the only 



