KNEE-ROLLS AND PLAIN FLAPS. i 1 1 



delicacy of touch, and physical weakness maybe ; 

 but what I adduce as an additional reason has, I 

 am sure, very much to do with the fact. There- 

 fore I maintain that for this, as well as for the 

 other reasons which I have mentioned, a saddle 

 should be cut as straight as possible. A man can 

 sit back, too, so much more easily in a straight 

 seat than in a hollow one, and this is perhaps one 

 of the most difficult positions in the art of horse- 

 manship to acquire. Moreover, by so doing he is 

 better enabled to use the proper muscles of his legs 

 — viz., those on the sides of his calves. 



And while on the subject of saddles, it will be 

 well to compare the advantages and the dis- 

 advantages of what are termed ' knee-rolls ' and 

 ' plain flaps.' 



Until a few years ago the majority of saddles 

 were made with a padding of leather on the front 

 portion of the flaps to support the knee of the rider. 

 These knee-rolls were either made by the leather 

 of the flaps being continued over the padding in 

 one piece, as it were, or else were sewn on sepa- 

 rately — ' laid on,' as it is termed. But whichever 

 system was adopted, their use remained the same ; 

 and there is not a shadow of a doubt but that they 

 are of the very greatest use to a horseman, inas- 

 much as they give an increase of purchase. 



