HINTS ON HORSES 



75 



hands. When you wish to trot or canter you 

 can throw your weight on to the pony, and 

 thus keep up easily with him. If anything 

 happens, catch the child in your right arm, 

 and whisk him off the pony's back. 



With girls learning to ride on a side saddle 

 they are at first inclined to " screw " at a trot, 

 and not rise perpendicularly from the saddle. 

 This screwing means sore backs, the animal's 

 withers being wrung by the friction of the 

 saddle. Make the child wear a Norfolk jacket 

 having a pleat down the centre of the back, or 

 chalk a straight line down the centre of her 

 back, or else sew on a piece of ribbon, which 

 can be easily noticed. The other children, or 

 any one riding behind her, can then easily see 

 and correct her if she is not rising truly. 



The shapes of saddles correspond to the 

 lines of a horse's shoulder. The flap cut for- 

 ward corresponds to the oblique shoulder, 

 and is the really comfortable shape (Fig. 45). 

 It gives ample room for the thigh to grip the 

 whole way along {ab). A straight-cut saddle and 

 an upright shoulder correspond to each other 

 (Fig. 46). The room from the point of the 

 flap to the cantle is obviously shorter {a! b'), and 



Fig. 45. 



^^ 



Fig. 46. 



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