SEATS. 69 



this. The best hunting, steeplechase, and military 

 riders we have ever seen, all agreed on this one point 

 at least that of depending on the thigh, and not the 

 " under-leg," for their seat ; and hence is derived the 

 grand cardinal rule for a good seat : " From the hips 

 upwards movable, in order to enable the rider to vary 

 his balance, or use his weapons ; from the knee down- 

 ward movable, for the use of the spur, and the control 

 of the horse's hind legs ; and between these two points, 

 hip and knee, fixed, for the seat." According to this 

 rule, the middle of the rider adheres, both by weight 

 and muscular action, to the middle of the horse ; ac- 

 cording to the other system, the lower third of the 

 rider clings, by muscular action alone, to the horse's 

 shoulders, aided, perhaps, to a certain extent, by the 

 stirrup. 



But this brings us to the stirrup. Biding was cer- 

 tainly invented and practised before saddles existed ; 

 and it is nearly equally certain that the first saddles, 

 pads, or whatever they were, had no stirrups, these 

 contrivances having been subsequently invented for 

 the purpose of giving the rider further aid in addition 

 to that derived from balance and friction. Even now- 

 adays many a man can ride bare-backed to hounds or 

 in the melee without stirrups ; and this very short state- 

 ment of facts ought, we think, to go far to prove that 

 stirrups are very subordinate in value to balance and 

 friction taken together, which is precisely why we have 

 used the term stirrup-riding in an opprobrious sense. 

 The " tongs-across-a-wall seat " depends on balance 

 and the stirrup, renouncing all contact of the legs with 

 the horse's body ; the wash-ball seat goes further, and 

 abjures balance. In Chapter II., when speaking of the 



