Seats. 87 



says, " Be assured that the military seat with very long 

 stirrups will not do here, however graceful it may ap- 

 pear on a parade." Fortunately this great authority 

 gives us in his own book a drawing intended to repre- 

 sent this graceful seat, which (see Plate V), on closer 

 inspection, turns out to be Harry Lorrequer's " tongs 

 across a wall." Well, no doubt, this won't do for hunt- 

 ing, nor indeed, as far as we can see, for any other good 

 purpose beyond exhibiting the high polish of a man's 

 boots, spurs and stirrup-irons — the rider being in uni- 

 form, scarcely making his seat a good military one ; but 

 of this more anon. Mr. Apperley has, however, given 

 us two other figures representing his notions of good 

 and bad hunting seats, which are here presented to the 

 reader. 



On the other hand, there can be no doubt of the total 

 inapplicability of the wash-ball seat to military pur- 

 poses ; and, after all, one comes to the conclusion that 

 the essential difference between any two good forms of 

 seat is not so enormous as is commonly represented. If 

 a man " sits on horse ape-like," as the Hungarian phrase 

 is, he will scarcely succeed in any kind of riding; and 

 we believe that the great secret of good horsemanship in 

 general consists in avoiding exaggerations of all kinds. 

 The saddle, the position of the stirrup, and the peculiar 

 object in view, may and must induce modifications of 

 the seat ; but riding is still riding, and the mechanism 

 of the horse's construction cannot be altered by mere 

 fashion. 



Road-Ridij?g. — The road-rider, although not re- 

 quired to take fences, or permitted to ride at full gallop 

 like the fox-hunter, has his own difficulties to contend 

 with : he has to do his work on a hard, inelastic surface, 

 and not on grass fields or ploughed land ; he must be 

 prepared to make sharp turns, and to meet all sorts of 



