74 SEATS AND SADDLES. 



can give him the additional assistance of the stirrups. 

 Now the most difficult thing to attain is balance, and 

 the stirrup was devised for the purpose of assisting in 

 acquiring and maintaining it ; and it is therefore just 

 as reasonable to act in this manner as it would be to 

 set a boy to learn swimming without corks or bladders,, 

 and when he learned to support himself in the water 

 give him these artificial aids and this is seldom 

 thought rational. But there is another objection 

 namely, that the pupil first acquires one seat, and 

 afterwards is expected to change it for another and 

 a better one. Why not begin at first with this ? Every 

 practical cavalry officer knows that it is much easier to 

 teach a man that has never been on horseback than 

 one who has acquired methods of his own, which give 

 the instructor the double work of unteaching and teach- 

 ing. Of course if the people ride at home nearly in 

 the same way and in the same kind of saddle that they 

 are required to do in the ranks as, for instance, the 

 Hungarians, Cossacks, and others this does not apply ; 

 but with all western nations of Europe it does. It is 

 highly probable that the English system of hanging 

 the stirrups far forward in the saddle has been adopted, 

 partially at least, for the purpose of adapting these in- 

 struments to a seat acquired without them that is to 

 say, to a purpose they were not intended for. Long 

 experience in training recruits has resulted in the con- 

 viction that it is much better, and in the end more 

 expeditious, to give the young rider stirrups from the 

 beginning ; and when he has acquired a certain amount 

 of confidence and balance you may take away the 

 stirrups to perfect the latter, without running the least 

 risk of destroying the former. 



