2 74 Tjie Book of the Horse. 



There are young men in such fine condition as to need no preparation for commencing any 

 athletic exercise, however foreign to their previous habits. To such these hints on preparation 

 and training do not apply. 



In the hundreds of elaborate treatises that have been written on the art of horsemanship, 

 from the time of Xenophon to the thirtieth year of the reign of Queen Victoria, none have 

 explained the principles on which a horse should be saddled and a rider should sit on his 

 saddle so logically as Major Dwyer,* to whose scientific essay on the most important points 

 of good horsemanship tlie writer is much indebted, although the practices have been followed 

 by all fine horsemen of all nations, unwittingly, just as Moli^re's Bourgeois Gcntilhoinuie talked 

 prose without knowing it. 



Major Dwyer commences by describing the skeleton of an average horse standing in a 

 natural position ; that is, with its head stretched forward, and its hind-legs, instead of being 

 perfectly perpendicular from the hocks downwards, brought forward to assist in maintaining 

 its equilibrium. 



" The animal is at rest, but a greater share of weight rests on the fore-legs than on the 

 hind, because the head and neck in that position are heavier than the tail. 



" It will be observed of the framework of the back — the spinal column — on which the 

 rider's weight is to be placed, that whilst the under line of the vertebrae inclines slightly down- 

 wards towards the fore-hand, the spinal process of the first thirteen vertebrae of the back, 

 reckoning from the point where the neck is attached, incline backwards ; whereas those of the 

 fifteenth, sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth dorsal and the six lumbar vertebrae incline for- 

 wards ; the fourteenth dorsal vertebra with its process, standing perfectly upright, and forming 

 as it were the keystone of the arch, so that, in fact, the fourteenth dorsal vertebra is the centre 

 of motion of the horse's body. This is further shown by the distribution and points of attach- 

 ment of the muscles of the back and adjacent parts of the fore and hind-quarters." The 

 conclusion, then, from an examination of the skeleton and the bones clothed with muscles, 

 assisted by Major Dwyer's commentary, is that the seat of convenience on the horse and of 

 comfort for the rider is just over the fourteenth vertebra, the keystone of the arch, the centre 

 of the balance — the saddle in the middle of the horse's back, the rider in the centre of the 

 saddle. It is from want of knowledge of this anatomical fact that strong bold horsemen, sitting 

 with a firm grasp too far back, have broken their horses' backs in taking leaps, especially down 

 jumps, requiring more than ordinary exertion. 



From the study of the anatomy of the horse, we learn that " the fore-legs are essentially 

 bearers ; and the hind-legs, although chiefly propellers, also to a certain extent bearers." 



Those who wish to pursue the scientific deduction from this state of facts still further are 

 referred to the first pages of Major Dwyer's book. The plain conclusion is, that to obtain the 

 full use of both hind and fore legs, the rider must endeavour to preserve a just equilibrium. 

 " Judicious handling and riding are nothing else than finding a proper balance of forces for the 

 well-built horse and the horse defective in symmetry." 



The first lesson, then, the pupil has to learn is how to sit in the middle of the saddle and 

 keep there. In fact, to deserve the highest praise that can be bestowed on a steeplechase rider, 

 "he never moves in his saddle." 



The proper seat is neither on the fork, like the Duke of Newcastle's, nor on the Os eoecygis 

 — the tip of the spine — where the tail would be if man had one, but on three bones, viz., two 



* " Seats and Saddles.'' By Francis Dwyer, late M.ijor of Hussars in the Austrian Service. Blackwood. 



