Introductory Chapter. 23 



and authoritative assertions, and merely present general 

 principles derived from mechanical law^s that admit of 

 no controversy, showing their inevitable bearing on the 

 most important points, and leaving the reader as much 

 as possible to form his own judgment independently and 

 arrive at a practical application for himself. The work 

 is therefore not intended to represent a treatise on equita- 

 tion or the art of riding, but merely to be a plain and 

 easily intelligible exposition of the mechanical problems 

 connected with the case of a quadruped serving as a 

 bearer to a biped — in other words, of a horse under its 

 rider. 



The plan to be adopted will be, first, as regards 

 " Seats and Saddles," as follows : The horse's skeleton 

 is a framework forming the basis of the living machine 

 we employ as a bearer ; it is therefore necessary to 

 know something of its construction, less from an ana- 

 tomical than a mechanical point of view. The princi- 

 ples involved are very simple and familiar to most 

 people in one way or the other, regarding chiefly equi- 

 librium — that is to say, such a distribution of a weight 

 with reference to its supports as ensures stability, or, in 

 other w^ords, prevents its upsetting or falling ; also 

 something about levers. 



The chief weight to be carried by the machine is, of 

 course, the rider, whose seat should therefore be so ad- 

 justed as not to interfere with the free action of the 

 bearer and the presei-vation of its stability and equilib- 

 rium. But as the seat depends to a great extent on 

 the saddle, it becomes necessary to examine, in the 

 first place, the general principles of construction of 

 this mechanical contrivance, by means of which the 

 twofold object of securing the free action of the horse 

 and the safety of the rider may be best attained. This 

 will be found to depend partly on the absolute amount 

 of surface coming in contact on the one hand with the 



