n8 THROUGH STABLE AND SADDLE-ROOM. 



girth should be just tight enough to allow a finger's 

 breadth between it and the horse. 



Stirrup-irons are of great variety. I pin my 

 faith to those which are plain ; but they should 

 have what are called 'Prussian sides,' viz., should 

 be made wide where the arch joins the foot-bar, 

 so as to prevent the foot being bruised by reason of 

 the round iron pressing against the outside of it, 

 and a round arch can make itself very uncomfort- 

 able at the end of a long day's hunting, when the 

 foot has necessarily been ' home' in the stirrup for 

 many hours. The term ' home' implies that the 

 whole foot is thrust into the stirrup as far as it will 

 go, and that the bar of the stirrup is under the 

 hollow of the foot therefore, and not under the ball 

 of it. Such irons as I have described look smarter, 

 and are workmanlike also. 



There are no end of other stirrup-irons which 

 have been from time to time invented as safety 

 stirrups. They are all doubtless excellent in their 

 way, and bear out the good qualities they are 

 declared to possess ; but I do not care for them, 

 and, as I have said, I prefer the plain ones, 

 but these latter must fit the foot of the rider, 

 and be neither too large nor too small in any 

 measurement, whether in height of arch or width 

 of bar. If they are too large in either of these, it 



