202 HUNTING. 



The ease and security of the seat, as well as its appearance, 

 will depend much on the length of the stirrups ; and that will, 

 in its turn, depend much on the conformity both of the ridec 

 and the horse. A man who has to contend against these 

 natural obstacles to horsemanship, which we have already 

 indicated, will have to ride in shorter stirrups than one more 

 suitably formed for the saddle. On a horse rather low in the 

 withers, and very strong in the quarters, shorter stirrups, too, will 

 be found necessary, however the man may be formed. It 

 may be taken as a good general rule for the majority of men 

 on the majority of horses, that that length of the stirrup 

 leathers will be found at once the most comfortable, and 

 affording the firmest hold, which raises a man clear of his 

 horse's withers when he stands up in his stirrups with his feet 

 home. 



It will be hardly needful to expatiate on the inflections of 

 the body necessary to preserve the equilibrium while the horse 

 is in the act of leaping. The mere instinct of self-preservation 

 which is native in every breast would be sufficient to teach this 

 primary lesson, which indeed is generally learnt on the rider's 

 first mount, the nursery rocking horse ; though, to be sure, one 

 sometimes sees it strangely forgotten in the hunting field. It 

 may, however, be worth while to remark that here again the 

 movement of the body should be mainly from the hips upwards. 

 Down thence to the knee the legs should retain their original 

 position, but from the knee, as the horse descends, they should 

 be inclined slightly backwards. This, too, may seem a simple 

 rule enough, almost an inevitable one ; but, as a matter of fact, 

 one often sees it violated, not only in the field, but often in 

 books, and most often in the illustrations to books. If the feet 

 be thrust forward, so that the whole leg be in a direct line from 

 the hip downwards, the shock when the horse lands, especially 

 over a drop fence or on hard ground, will be so violent, that the 

 rider, if he does not actually lose it, will at least find some 

 difficulty in keeping his seat, besides running the risk, if the 

 fence be a high one, of strain or rupture. No man, if he leaps 



