CHAPTER XV 



SADDLES, BRIDLES, AND OTHER TACK 



"There's naught a trifle, 

 Though small it appear. 

 Small sands make the mountains, 

 Minutes make the year, 

 And trifles Life." 



— Young. 



Two things are of utmost importance in a saddle: 

 first, that it fits the horse to a nicety, and second, 

 that it fits the rider. As the range of difference be- 

 tween various side-saddles is far greater than that ex- 

 isting between any two cross-saddles, the exact make, 

 shape, and size of a saddle is of even more impor- 

 tance to a woman than it is to a man. This is a point 

 that is too little appreciated by the average man, when 

 he asks a woman to ride a horse in a saddle so totally 

 different from anything that she has ever been in that 

 she cannot help but feel strange in it. I personally 

 feel more at home on a strange horse in my own saddle, 

 than I do on my own horse in a strange saddle. 



In a small stable, one side-saddle,* if well made and 

 large and roomy as to tree, may, by the help of numnahs 

 and pommel pads, be made to fit many horses, but 

 whenever it is possible, it is a far better plan to have 



* The side-saddle consists of (1) the tree or wooden frame, (2) the 

 panel or cushion to render it soft against the animal's back, (3) the 

 leather covering of the seat, etc., (4) the leaping head and crutch, (5) 

 the stirrup leather, called "leather" for short, (6) the stirrup "iron," 

 (7) the girths, (8) the balance strap. 



The tree consists of two wooden bars held together in front by the 

 steel gullet-plate, and in the rear by the cantle. Over the open space 

 in the tree are stretched strong hempen webs. The "points" of the 

 tree are attached to the gullet-plate and extend down into the pockets 

 of the covered saddle. 



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