THE MILITARY SEAT. 101 



therefore sits on his triangle with his body upright and his 

 legs coming down in their natural fall, his whole weight 

 being spread over the entire under- surf ace of the saddle- 

 blades ; whilst it is evident that the weight of a, being 

 far to the rear, will press down the hinder ends of the 

 saddle-blades into the horse's back, tilting up the front 

 ends ; b, on the contrary, drives the saddle-blade ends 

 into the horse's withers : o-'s saddle will probably run 

 forward, 6's horse run through the girths. 



The place of the stirrup and its influence on the 

 seat is here altogether left out of consideration. It 

 should bs made to accord with the seat, and not the 

 seat with it, otherwise the rider is always " con- 

 tending against" his stirrups, instead of "depending on 

 them." 



How the bearing- strap of the saddle should be ex- 

 actly laced will depend altogether on the "plenitude" 

 or " poverty " of the seat of honour of each individual 

 rider. A very full-sized sitting-part requires the lacing 

 to approach that shown at a in order to make the rider 

 sit like c ; a very spare man, on the contrary, will re- 

 quire something like b for the same purpose : for most 

 young men it will do best as at c.* 



* The bearing-strap of the seat is best made of a piece of good 

 girthing-web, doubled together so as to form, with its central 

 portion, a collar to embrace neatly the hinder knob of the saddle, 

 the two branches being sewed by their edges together down the 

 middle of the seat, and ending, the one with a strap, the other 

 with a buckle, which, when united, form a corresponding collar for 

 the front knob. Brass eylet-holes stamped into the outer edges at 

 certain intervals would be an improvement. Of course a movable 

 pad covers this bearing-strap, the lacings and the side-plate of the 

 saddle, as far down as the tops of the girth at each side, but it is 

 on the length of the bearing- strap, and the way in which it is 

 laced, that the form of the seat will depend. All the edges of 

 these wooden saddles must be nicely bevelled off. 



