STIRRUP IRONS. 139 



altering the length of the leather, it has now been generally 

 given up in favour of the plan shown in Fig. 127. Recog- 

 nising the fact that the unnecessary shortness of the tongue 

 of the old-fashioned buckle made its manipulation somewhat 

 awkward, especially when mounted, Mr. Langham-Reed 

 has wisely applied the principle of an ordinary girth-buckle 

 (Fig. 149) to stirrup leathers (Fig. 144). Every horseman 

 should adopt this sound improvement. 



STIRRUP IRONS. 

 The fashionable stirrup iron for hunting is the " open- 



Fig. 141. Fig. 142. Fig. 143. Fig. 144. 



Stirrup Leather Buckles. 



bottom Persian-side iron," to use the trade expression. There 

 is very little difference between the Persian-side iron 

 (Fig. 145) and the " spade-side iron " (Fig. 146), both of 

 which look better than the "round-leg iron" (Fig. 147). 

 Irons with "open bottoms" (Fig. 127), give a better hold to 

 the feet than solid ones, and the economy of weight, if that 

 is a point to be considered, is obtained at a part which can 

 best spare the loss of material. Stirrup irons should be made 

 of hard forged steel (p. 27). 



Some saddlers use the term " Prussian-side," and others 



