Seat 97 



well enough on the level but impracticable for fencing, let 

 me say it is more essential at this point than anywhere else. 



Let us hurry our two riders on over a fence and see 

 them safely landed on the other side. Directly over the 

 fence both riders assume, for an instant, the same position. 

 This instant is the only one, however, between leaving the 

 ground and landing again, where the rider by grip is riding 

 his horse. Before that and after that, as we shall presently 

 show, he is not riding but hanging on. As they begin the 

 decline the man riding by balance gradually leans back 

 until his centre of gravity pulls downward in a line drawn 

 from his head through his body and the horse's fore legs. 

 Can a better position be imagined for the comfort of the 

 rider or for his safety ? Can any one place the weight of 

 the rider in a position to be lowered to the ground with 

 less exertion to the horse ? What of our grip rider, whose 

 body still remains in the same rigid, unyielding position ? 

 Can any one suggest anything he could do to make his posi- 

 tion more uncomfortable for himself or his mount ? Look 

 at page 98 and see our grip rider descending with his 

 horse's head still in a vice. Could he place himself with 

 hands and seat in better form to make his horse turn a 

 somersault on landing? 



In the former case the horse alights and goes forward in 

 the same smooth stride that he had on the level. In the 

 latter, being thrown out of balance by the rider sitting out 

 of balance, he has to put forth as much muscular exertion 

 to land his rider as he had to lift him. It is not too much 

 to estimate that the one horse can take a hundred and 

 seventy-five pounds over a four-foot-six fence with less 



