70 SEATS AND SADDLES. 



position of the stirrup in the saddle, we could only give 

 some of the reasons why this should be central. We 

 have now arrived at a point that renders it possible to 

 give the remaining ones, which are of no less impor- 

 tance. They are these : The interior surfaces of a 

 tolerably well-built man's thighs and legs, from the 

 fork to the heels, are curved in concave or hollow 

 sweeps, that may be varied from the knee doivnwards by 

 turning the toes more or less outwards ;* and if we 

 look at a horse from the rear, it will be very evident 

 that his midship section that it to say, .the lines we 

 should see if the animal were chopped fairly in two 

 right through his fourteenth vertebra coincides very 

 accurately with the sweep of the rider's legs. At top, 

 no doubt, the figure is flatter than the man's fork, but 

 the ridge of the saddle fills up the empty space to a 

 certain extent ; besides which, no good rider sits in his 

 fork, but on his seat. Further, although the horse's 

 body is rounded away under the belly, the possibility 

 of varying the curve of the leg from the knee downwards 

 enables the rider to preserve contact very low down : 

 he can encircle his horse nearly two-thirds when sitting 

 on this line. 



If, on the contrary, the stirrup be placed too far for- 

 ward the thigh runs diagonally forwards toward the 

 horse's shoulder. Now let us look at the horse from 

 the front, standing exactly opposite to his forehead. 

 We see at once that the animal's body, besides being 

 narrower at the shoulders than at the midship section, 

 presents, first of all, a concave curve from this to the 



* It is therefore very absurd to insist on any specific measure 

 for this. Even a round-thighed man may get up a hollow curve 

 by turning out his toes a little in excess. 



