THE SADDLE. 55 



What is the legitimate use of the stirrups besides 

 enabling us to mount our horses ? The first and most 

 obvious one is to give the rider lateral support, to 

 prevent his slipping off to the right or left by his seat 

 revolving round the horse's body as a wheel does round 

 an axle. In riding barebacked, or on a saddle without 

 stirrups, if the rider falls it is most generally to one side, 

 and not directly forwards or backwards ; and it is very 

 evident that the more directly under the rider's seat the 

 stirrups be suspended the more efficiently will they 

 perform this duty, the resistance offered by them being 

 perpendicularly upwards, or precisely in the opposite 

 direction to that in which the weight falls, which is 

 perpendicularly downwards ; whereas, if the stirrups be 

 suspended at a distance from the rider's seat, they act 

 at an angle to the line of fall. They may, and always do, 

 in such a position change the direction of the fall, but 

 they cannot meet and prevent it so efficiently as when 

 placed under the seat. The second use of these con- 

 trivances is to enable the rider, for various purposes, to 

 rise in his saddle by standing in his stirrups. And here 

 a distinction must be drawn as to whether it is the 

 rider's object to transmit his own weight indirectly 

 through the stirrups to the saddle at the same point at 

 which he previously applied it directly with his seat, or 

 at some other point. In the first case it is very obvious 

 that the stirrups are best placed exactly under the 

 rider's seat ; for, putting aside any changes of the 

 position of his own body from the hips upwards he may 

 please to make, everything remains as before, and the 

 equilibrium of the horse is not disturbed. In the second 



of 1859, depend on the wrong position of the stirrup in the 

 respective military saddles. 



