PANELS. 131 



stuffed with curled hair, they will keep their shape and 

 elasticity for a long period. Their disadvantages are, that, 

 to be re-stuffed, they require to be taken out of the saddle, 

 and that they are not as comfortable to a horse's back, 

 when he is sweating, as serge-covered panels, which quickly 

 take up any excess of perspiration. The fact that liability 

 to sore back is increased by clipping the hair off that 

 portion of the back which is covered by the saddle, shows 

 that it is an advantage to have an absorbent material 

 between the skin and the panel. The presence of unabsorbed 

 sweat between the back and the panel will naturally make 

 the skin of the part soft and liable to injury, especially 

 during severe and prolonged work. 



The advantage which a serge-covered panel derives from 

 its power of absorption, is more or less counterbalanced by 

 the subsequent trouble of drying it, and by the increased 

 weight and loss of elasticity due to the presence of mineral 

 matter being left in the stuffing by the absorption and sub- 

 sequent evaporation of sweat. It is evident that unless such 

 a panel is carefully dried, after it has been made wet, it will 

 soon become spoiled. Beating the panel with a stick, after it 

 has been well dried, will remove some of the deposited mineral 

 matter, but by no means all of it. 



By far the hardest part of an ordinary serge-covered panel 

 to dry, and to keep clean and soft, is its flaps, namely, the 

 portions which are absent in a short panel. Hence, the short 

 panel is the best shape for panels covered with serge in fact, 

 for all panels. 



Slight alterations in the stuffing of a serge-covered panel 

 are easily made by passing the seat awl through the serge ; 

 and extensive ones, by making a cut or two in the serge, 

 generally in the middle of the panel, and adding or removing 

 stuffing, the position of which can be altered by means of 

 the seat awl and seat iron. The cuts are afterwards closed 



9* 



