Seats 35 



unknown In England to-day, up to about 1850 the 

 majority of writers on the subject of equitation were 

 agreed that the straight-legged seat was the best, 

 and the only one to be recommended. These 

 authors were not generally hunting men ; the latter 

 gentlemen, with few exceptions, thought school rid- 

 ing and scientific horse-training unworthy of their 

 serious consideration. 



The reader may well ask the pertinent ques- 

 tion, how came this seat to be the general one in 

 America ? and why does the cow-puncher still retain 

 it ? I will endeavor to supply answers to both ques- 

 tions. Horses became extinct in America before the 

 beginning of the historic period (von Zittel) and 

 were first reintroduced by the Spaniards in 1537; 

 some of these escaped and ran wild, and by 1580 

 their descendants had spread over the continent. 



It seems only natural to infer that with the horse 

 came the seat of the period, and it has been retained 

 to this day by the riders of the plains. It is well 

 suited to the horse and to the work of the cow- 

 puncher. He has to cross no fences, trotting is un- 

 known to him, and as he pivots on his fork he can 

 bend and turn at will to throw his rope. Excepting 



