68 SEATS AND SADDLES. 



inclined to increase by loading himself. Whether that 

 derived from muscular action shall become an important 

 addition to the former, or merely an independent alter- 

 native, is, after all, the great point at issue, and that 

 which constitutes the real difference between seats. 

 Muscular action will prove an addition to the friction 

 derived from weight if both be exercised simultaneously 

 nearly at the same point, and in the same direction ; 

 if not, the rider will have to depend alternately on one 

 or the other, instead of both taken together, which is, 

 of course, much less advantageous. 



In some forms of seats the rider depends almost 

 entirely on the pressure of his knees against the fore- 

 part of the saddle, and relinquishes altogether the 

 advantages derived from steady contact of his seat with 

 the other end of it. For riding a race or a fox-hunt 

 this may answer ; but muscular power is subject to 

 waste, and this method will never do for continuous 

 exertion, being much too fatiguing to the rider, and 

 therefore uncertain. 



Nor is this all. " Making," as Sir F. Head says, 

 in describing the hunting seat,* " the knee a pivot, or 

 rather hinge, and the legs beneath them the grasp," is 

 like holding a horse-pistol between the tips of the fore- 

 finger and thumb, instead of grasping it in the full 

 hand. If the weapon kicks on being discharged, it 

 will revolve on the hinge with a vengeance ; and if 

 the horse perform a similar feat, the upper two-thirds 

 of the rider's body do the same round the knee-pivot. 

 The leg, from the knee downward, is much less fitted 

 for holding or grasping than the thigh is ; moreover, 

 it has other functions to perform that interfere with 

 * " The Horse and his Rider." p. 31. 



