250 HANDBOOK OF THE TURF. 



Stiff 'un. [Eng.] A horse certain not to run. 



Stifle. The jomt of the hind leg of the horse, between 

 the hip and the hock, and corresponding to the knee in man. 

 It ie on a line with the flank, near the abdomen. It is the 

 office of the iliacus muscle to guard the abdomen from the 

 injury to which it would be liable from the blows the stifle joint 

 might give it, in its extreme and violent flexions ; and when 

 this muscle performs its work well it gives the fine "stifle 

 action" so much admired. 



Stifle Shoe. A special form of shoe exposing a curved 

 surface to the ground, used in treating a stifled horse. It is 

 placed upon the sound foot, with the effect of causing the horse 

 to throw its weight on the weak joint, and thus strengthen it 

 by use. 



Stirrup. The support for the foot of a person mounted 

 on horseback, attached to the saddle by means of an adjustable 

 stirrup-strap ; a metal loop with a corrugated foot-piece to pre- 

 vent the foot from slipping. The stirrups of some western 

 riding saddles, and also some of those used in the cavahy ser- 

 vice have a strong front piece of leather or other material, 

 which not only protects the front of the leg, but prevents the 

 foot from pressing too far into the loop. Stirrups were 

 unknown to the ancients. The Greeks rode bare back, or on a 

 saddle consisting of a single pannel of sheepskin, or often of a 

 piece of cloth folded several times and thus forming a pillion. 

 Gracchus, a noble Roman, who Avas at the height of his fame 

 about 126 B. C., fitted the highways with stones to enable the 

 horsemen to mount. The methods of mounting must have 

 been to vault ; to step from a horse-block, or, as Xenophon 

 said, "after the Persian manner," that is, to step from the back 

 of a slave or captive who bent himself for the purpose. War- 

 riors mounted with the aid of the spur. It had a hook upon 

 the shaft, and, placed at the side of the horse, assisted the rider 

 in mounting. Stirrups were used somewhat in the fifth cen- 

 tury, but were not common even in the twelfth. 



The saddle bow, pommel and cantle were invented in Constantinople 

 toward the middle of the fourth century. Even later than this Ihe 

 stirruj) came into use, appearing for the first time in the "Treatise 

 on the Art of AVar," written by the Emperor Maurice at the entl of 

 tlie sixth century. These Byzantine innovations spread every- 

 where. It is beyond question "that the Turks, for example, adopted 

 with the saddle and spurs all the administrative forms of the Lower 

 Empire, and many a usage whicii seems little in accord with their 

 primitive genius. — A Phidian Horse: Art and Archaeology on the 

 Acropolis, From the Frencli of Victor Clierbuliez, translated by Eliz- 

 abeth Roberts. 



Stirrup. A metallic loop for holding the foot of the 

 driver, fastened on the inside of each thill of the sulky just in 

 front of the cross-bar. 



