;o4 



CHAPTER XIV. 



SADDLES, BRIDLES, BITS, MARTINGALES. 



Saddles— Beside the Somerset Three Kinds— The Plain Flapped— The Stuffed— The Quilted— The Australian Kid— The whole- 

 cut Pommel advantage— Stirrups — Stirrup Leathers— Girths — Woollen — Raw Hide Girths— Leather Pannel instead of Saddle 

 Cloth— Saddleiy and Girthing— Bridle— The Snaffle— The Curb Bit— The Bit h /i^w/d-- High Ports Condemned— The 



D^vyer The Pelham — On fitting a Bit — Major Dwyer's Directions — Illustration of — Average Dimensions of a Horse's Mouth — 



The Chifney Bit— The Curb-chain — The Place for it— How to put it on — Nosebands — Their Use — The Bucephalus 

 Dangerous— Mr. Tattersall's Improvement on— Value of a Martingale— Sir Tatton Sykes despised it— Few Men able to imitate 

 him— The Standing Martingale to be carefully fitted— The Rearing Bit— The Martingale for Hunting with Rings. 



The ordinary saddle in use in England either for road riding or hunting affords (unlike Gervase 

 Markham's perfect saddle) the rider no support beyond the stirrups. It is a purely English, 

 and probably Yorkshire invention, the outcome of the taste for riding across country in pursuit 

 of hare, stag, or fox. 



Before hunting habits put high-school precepts out of fashion our ancestors rode either 

 upon the high piqued saddles used by knights in armour, or on a deini-pique something like 

 the modern military. On the Continent, until when late in this century the English style of 

 riding became naturalised in France and Germany, the gentry used nothing but semi-military 

 saddles, high behind and before, in which the rider was securely packed with the help of a 

 sheepskin or something of the kind. No doubt the excellence of English horsemanship is largely 

 due to our ancestors having more than a generation back dismissed most of the ann-chair-like 

 aids on horseback, and been content to rely for keeping their seats on balance, grip, and stirrups. 



There are, besides the Somerset saddle already recommended for an adult pupil at p. 262, 

 three kinds of saddles in common use in England : — 



The plain flapped saddle used by huntsmen and most masters of hounds, which is the 

 cheapest saddle made, and also the most slippery. This saddle is seldom used in London or 

 other great cities ; it answers well anywhere for good horsemen except in very hilly countries. 

 You really do require a roll of leather to keep back your knees when descending declivities 

 nearly as steep as the roof of a house, for that reason in the mountains of California the Spanish 

 saddle is universally used. 



The saddle more in favour for both park and road riding, as well as in hunting, has the 

 flaps stuffed, they therefore yield comfortably to the pressure of the kness. The small roll in 

 front of his knees supports the rider a little, if the stirrup leathers are so suspended that he can 

 touch them without disturbing his seat. 



The third kind of saddle is quilted all over, and affords a softer seat, and the flaps are less 

 slippery. The quilted saddle is in favour with horsemen who have little grip, and with those 

 who don't feel as young and as strong as they did thirty years earlier. 



For the Australian bushmen our wholesale saddlers supply a cheaper form of saddle, but 

 after the pattern of the Somerset. 



In order to meet the peculiar tricks of the half-broken vicious-tempered bush horses (referred 

 to at p. 149 in the description of Australian horses), the thick pad before the knees supple- 



