Seats 41 



According to Dodge, author of " Riders in Many 

 Lands," the crouching seat was the old Red Indian 

 one, but I have been told that its value for flat-rac- 

 ing was discovered in the following manner. 



A racing man went out West to try and pick up 

 something useful at " outside " meetings, where he 

 found that horses were generally ridden by black 

 men, who sat very much after the manner of mon- 

 keys at a circus, with a firm hold of the mane, and 

 with their thighs horizontal. Th^ visitor bought 

 one of the successful horses, thinking that it would 

 be a gold mine when properly ridden by a white 

 jockey, but to his great surprise it was always 

 beaten, until he bethought him of putting up the 

 negro again. The return of his purchase to its 

 proper form now gave the owner food for thought, 

 and he was intelligent enough to hit upon the true 

 reason for the colored man's success, which was 

 soon emulated by most of the white riders in the 

 country. 



The advantage of the American seat, briefly, is 

 that it allows of the rider's weight being carried in 

 the right place for speed — i. e., well over the 

 withers, which is very much farther forward than 



