132 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[April, 
article—the only position that can give a 
secure seat. In walking, a gentle support of 
the stirrups will help keep the body from sway¬ 
ing from side to side as the horse moves. In 
trotting, where stirrups are almost indispensa¬ 
ble, they enable the horseman to either “rise to 
the trot,” or to so distribute the shock in 
“ riding hard,” that it shall be no shock at all, 
but an easy, quick movement, distributed be¬ 
tween the feet, the seat, and the thighs. 
The length of the stirrups should be carefully 
attended to. Take the proper position in the 
saddle, w T ith the whole inner part of the thighs, 
as far down as the knees, pressing firmly and 
immovably against the saddle, and the legs 
below the knees hanging vertically—the toes 
pointing a little downward. Then have the 
stirrup-leathers so adjusted that the irons will 
just touch the hollows of the feet, giving them 
support without raising their position. There 
will then be no danger that the stirrups will 
disturb the seat, either by raising the knees or 
by the effort of the rider to reach down to 
them when the straps are too long, while by 
drawing back the feet, so that their balls rest 
on the irons, a leverage 'will be given—from the 
balls of the feet to the ankle-joints—that will be 
sufficient to maintain an even pressure, even if 
the person is thrown a little from the saddle by 
the movement of the horse. As men’s legs and 
their arms are generally of proportionate 
length, and as the stirrups are usually fastened 
a certain distance down on the sides of the sad¬ 
dle, the stirrups are of the proper length when 
the whole length of leathers and irons is a trifle 
less than that of the arm and hand; that is, 
lay the tips of the fingers on the band of the 
leathers where they pass around the bolt on the 
saddle-tree, and draw the irons toward the 
arm-pit. If they just touch the muscle under 
the shoulder-blade (not reaching away into the 
ribs), the straps are usually of the right length. 
In ordinary riding, it is best to have the ball 
of the foot touch the stirrups, as the play of the 
ankle-joint gives more elasticity to the support; 
but in rough galloping or leaping, it is best to 
“ drive the feet home,” and carry the stirrup in 
the hollows. Especially must small stirrups be 
avoided. The irons should not, of course, be so 
large that the boot-lieels can, by any accident, 
get through them, but there should be ample 
room for the foot to be thrust in and out with 
perfect freedom. This will be one of the best 
safeguards against the worst mishap that can 
befall an unhorsed rider—that of being dragged 
by the heels by a runaway horse, owing to the 
binding of the foot in the stirrup. There have 
been numerous devices made to prevent this 
calamity. The only one of them that is even 
tolerably sure (and that one is nearly perfect), is 
shown in fig. 3. This is simply an arrangement 
for closing the back part of the iron by which 
the stirrup-leather is fastened to the saddle, 
Fig. 5. —MEXICAN SADDLE. 
with a movable piece held in place by a spring, 
exactly as the blade of a pocket-knife is held. 
It takes a sharp jerk to open this catch, but 
(unless it is allowed to become fastened with 
rust) it will yield to much less strain than that 
of a falling rider. These safety irons are at¬ 
tached, as a matter of course, to all English 
saddle-trees. At some future time, we shall 
enter at length into the question of the con¬ 
struction of saddles, but the beginner is most 
likely to use the saddle that he can get most 
conveniently. Whether this is a “ McClellan” 
(fig. 4), saddle, a Mexican (fig. 5), or the better 
English (fig. 6) saddle, is not very important at 
the commencement. 
Precisely as he has schooled his muscles 
to the requirements of his new position with¬ 
out the aid of stirrups, so must the learner now 
learn to make proper use of them, and he should 
attempt nothing further until he has learned 
how to use these accessories—that is, how to 
use them as accessories only , not as an essential 
dependence. Their most important office is to 
rest the legs, and to relieve the muscles of the 
fatiguing work of keeping the seat firm at all 
times. So long as there is no unusual disturb¬ 
ance of the position, it is well to depend 
mainly on the stirrups to preserve it; but any 
sudden start, in whatever direction, should find 
the knees and thighs at once ready to perform 
their duty of grasping the saddle. This cannot 
be the case if the weight is thrown too much 
on the feet; but it is also important to learn to 
stand in the stirrups (while the horse is in mo¬ 
tion), turning so as to look to the rear, and to 
throw the weight first on one foot and then on 
the other; in short, to assume every possible 
position rapidly and easily, for all this adds 
immensely to the security, freedom, and grace 
of the seat. It is only in this way that one can 
hope to become so perfect a horseman as to 
justify the old description as being “ a part of 
the horse,” of “ seeming to grow out of the 
horse’s back.” 
This branch of the subject—acquiring a good 
seat with and without the aid of stirrups—may 
be appropriately closed by a quotation from 
“ Man and Horse” : “ When you can sit your 
horse perfectly in his trot and canter, you pos¬ 
sess a seat such as not one rider in half-a-dozen 
ever acquires. You are still far from being a 
good horseman. You cannot, indeed, properly 
speaking, be termed a horseman at all. But you 
may look forward with confidence to becoming 
what most men would consider an excellent 
horseman ; because you have had the patience 
and perseverance to drudge on until you have 
been bumped and jolted into a smooth and solid 
union with your saddle. It is by the absence of 
this union, and by the abrupt shocks and dis¬ 
placements to which they are consequently ex¬ 
posed, that so many riders are disabled from 
acquiring the proper use of their hands and 
legs; consequently from ever becoming masters 
of their horses.” 
The next step should be to free yourself from 
your bondage to the person who has up to this 
time managed your horse for you; and a real 
bondage it is, as you will find when you first 
attempt to take him in hand yourself. You 
may even have been somewhat accustomed to 
riding before your present exercises com¬ 
menced, yet you will feel very awkward 
when you first attempt to repeat your lessons 
while managing the animal yourself; for the 
mere fact of having to do something with your 
hands will have a tendency to constrain your 
position. It gives the body another employ¬ 
ment, and the combination of demands upon it, 
and upon the attention, must be made familiar 
before it can become easy. There is no other 
rule than to learn one thing at a time, and then 
to learn the combination of each with all that 
has preceded it, before taking the next step ; 
Fig. 6.—ENGLISH SADDLE. 
and this rule is equally applicable to the man 
and to the horse. Both are “ getting the knack ” 
of an artificial habit, and they must learn it 
gradually , or they will never learn it at all. 
