96 HACKS AND HUNTERS 



It is quite sufficiently long to permit the rider's leg 

 comfortably to clear the leaping head when rising to a 

 trot, and yet were the horse to make any movement 

 beyond the point at which natural balance could main- 

 tain the seat, the leaping head can be effectively and 

 instantly gripped at a point about four or five inches 

 above the knee by a supple movement of the ankle 

 alone, which pushes the thigh tightly against it. The 

 downward pressure of the foot against the stirrup- 

 iron assists in the upward pressure in such a way that 

 the rider is figuratively clamped into the saddle in a 

 manner impossible with a long leather. For with the 

 latter the leg, in order to press against the leaping 

 head, has to relinquish its downward pressure against 

 the iron, in which case the action is bound to be 

 feebler than in the former. In assisting the grip of 

 the left leg, the right knee and leg should press down- 

 ward and laterally against the saddle and the horse's 

 shoulder, but it should not be hooked back around 

 the pommel. 



I realize that in advocating a powerful grip on the 

 leaping head, in case of an emergency, I am putting 

 myself in direct opposition to several eminent women 

 riders, who jump, hunt, and ride on rough horses with 

 extraordinarily long leathers, claiming that they are 

 better able to slide up on to a horse's neck in this way 

 and maintain their pressure against the leaping head 

 at a point farther up the thigh and without the assist- 

 ance of the downward pressure on the iron. I fail to 

 see, however, how such a grip can ever be as secure. 

 as the one obtained by combined knee and ankle pres- 

 sure. Moreover, the ability to crawl up on to a horse's 

 neck like a monkey, affected by some of our cross- 

 saddle lady riders, is not at all necessary. It goes 



