The Saddle. 59 



lad been forced into the soil ; you will find it to be the 

 same for all four feet, if the surface on which the table 

 stands be equally soft throughout : then shift the table a 

 few inches, having previously removed the weight, and 

 place this near one of the ends instead of in the middle ; 

 measure again and you will find that the pair of legs 

 nearest to the weight have penetrated much deeper than 

 the others ; therefore, in order to equalize the pressure, 

 the rider's weight should be placed in the centre of the 

 saddle. 



But this is not all. Place a piece of stout board about 

 two feet long on the ground, stand on one end of it, 

 and you will find that the other loses its contact with 

 the ground and is more or less tilted up into the air — 

 the board has become a lever. Now, make a motion 

 as if about to jump, but without quitting your position 

 on the board ; this latter will, being out of contact with 

 the ground at the farther end, be shoved onward in that 

 direction. This is precisely what happens when a rider 

 sits at one end of the saddle, generally the hinder one ; 

 this one is pressed down into the horse's back, the other, 

 generally the front end, is tilted up, and at every move- 

 ment of the horse and rider the whole saddle is shoved 

 forward till stopped by the withers, which it will 

 probably wound ; and then it is either the groom's, or 

 the saddler's, or the horse's fault, and the saddle is 

 thrown aside and some new patent contrivance adopted, 

 which of course does not remedy a defect that depends 

 on the rider himself. 



We may now go a step farther. Suppose the saddle 

 be placed with its centre exactly over the combined 

 centres of gravity and motion (line E F., fig. 4), and 

 the rider in the centre of the saddle ; there will be, first, 

 an equable distribution of the combined w^eight of horse 

 and rider on all four legs, both in a state of rest and 

 action ; secondly, the movements of the horse, centring 



