66 Seals and Saddles. 



ously impaired if the stirrups be placed forward, and 

 the whole concern makes a heavy pitch into the trough 

 of the sea, just at the moment it should " run up into 

 the wind's eye." The late Sir Charles Napier relates 

 in one of his books a lamentable story of a fine gallant 

 English sergeant who lost both his arms in this way ; 

 and officers who have served in India or Algiers often 

 complain that there is no preventing the native horse- 

 men getting behind their people's back, where, of 

 course, they have it all their own way, like a bull in a 

 china shop. Sir Charles throws the blame altogether 

 on the enormous pack the regulars are compelled to put 

 on their horses' backs. This has, no doubt, its own 

 special influence ; but any one who has seen cavalry 

 skirmishing, and understands the mechanism we are 

 laboring to explain, must have also seen that the position 

 of the stirrup acting on the rider's seat* has a great deal 

 to do with it. 



We mentioned above that the man riding bare-backed, 

 or on a saddle without stirrups, most frequently tumbles 

 off' to the right or left ; well, it will be found that ivith 

 stirrups, especially when the latter are very far forward 

 and very shorty the catastrophe generally supervenes 

 right ahead, the performer being projected in trajecto- 

 ries, not yet described in ballistic works, away over his 

 steed's neck, to the great damage of collar-bones. It is 

 like having one's hand pierced by leaning on a reed — 

 the short stirrup that is relied on for safety furnishing 

 an admirable lever-point for the equine catapult. 



And this brings us to the length of the stirrup. The 

 length of the arm is generally prescribed as being the 

 proper length for the stirrup. This might answer well 



* Almost all " rider nations" place their stirrups exactly under 

 their seat. This will be evident from an inspection of some of our 

 Plates, as also that the example has been followed in the best Conti- 

 nental cavalries. 



