The Saddle. 57 



this very desirable object, as shall be more fully explained 

 presently.* 



There must, however, be some limit to the size of a 

 saddle, for its own absolute weight is a matter of serious 

 consideration : it goes into the scale with the jock. Let 

 the size be proportioned to the weight to be carried^ 

 and if you have a tender-backed horse, make it a little 

 bigger than would be otherwise necessary. Of course a 

 jock can ride his race on a thing that is more a con- 

 trivance for hanging up a pair of stirrups than a saddle, 

 while a sixteen-stone rider must divide his weight over 

 as large a surface as convenient. 



There are two ways in which the weight of the saddle 

 maybe decreased without its useful inider surface being 

 narrowed. The first is to avoid extending the frame 

 (tree), or indeed any other part of the saddle, beyond 

 the surfaces where it really has to support pressure ; and 

 this being exercised chiejly in a perpendicular direc- 

 tion, it is not only useless but absurd to make these 

 extend too i^x down over the ribs laterally. The second 

 is to use, for the tree, materials combining great strength 

 and moderate elasticity, with the least possible weight. 

 A civilian saddle, made altogether of wood, is a very 

 clumsy affair, and it is therefore the practice to reduce 

 the volume of the wood, and rc;j^ain the strength thus 

 sacrificed by iron platings. This metal is, however, 

 very inelastic : if the plates be made thin and light, 

 they bend, and thus retain the wood in a distorted 

 shape ; if thick, they are heavy, and very liable to break 

 with a severe shock, or, if not, to convey this rudely to 

 the horse's shoulder or back, instead of acting as the 



* As a familiar illustration of the principle may be mentioned the 

 difference of depth of track of broad and narrow tired wheels, or of a 

 roller as compared with both ; or, a board of one foot square will sink 

 deeper into soft ground under a man's weight than one of double that 

 size ; and this latter will sink as deep as the former if weighted only 

 at one end. 



