SADDLERY AND SORE BACKS. 
509 
front arch of the saddle—a question that is being ridden to death—becomes an 
absurdity. 
It was intended that the blanket should be of medium weight for a saddle 
blanket; it was to be for stuffing, to be folded this way and that way as the 
officer superintending might wish, and that a heavy field blanket for standing 
camps should also be supplied when necessary. The saddle blanket can scarcely be 
considered a novelty in the service, for it was only in 1855 that a Committee 
recommended its abolition, and the substitution of the hair pannel. We may 
depend upon it that it took some time to work the change. Old soldiers have 
told me that at field-days, and on the march, men were constantly falling out to 
refix the blanket. But the saddle side-bars of those days were more like those 
on our pack saddles than on our riding saddles. In the year 1860 I was drilled 
on such a saddle; the seat was very short, and made more so by the leather seat 
of the sliabracque and sheep-skin then worn over the saddle seat. I found it a 
very uncomfortable saddle, indeed. 
The latest pattern blanket weighs 5 lbs. We are working towards a heavier 
pattern. If we do get to an 8 lb. blanket I think we shall have to try whether 
we cannot do without a numnah. You see this saddle-tree with the bare side-bars 
slips readily about on the blanket, while this saddle-tree, upon which we have a 
numnah pannel, with the slightest pressure grips the blanket. 
We have on the saddle I see before me the 1884 \[ girth attachment. It was 
tried in 1884 in two regiments ; one reported unfavourably and it was virtually 
set aside; but the other regiment held on to it for eight years and advocated it 
very strongly. The Royal Artillery Riding Establishment also had many saddles 
similarly fitted in use for some years, and I was told that they liked them very 
much. Now it has come in for all universal and drivers saddles. It is an excel¬ 
lent arrangement and is generally approved. We have also here two patterns of 
numnah pannels ; one is the 1884 pattern, having a very narrow flap below the 
front arch points, while the other differs in having the narrow piece cut off. The 
narrow piece was left on, by those who designed the pannel, to take a portion of 
the pressure of the flap from the V attachment dee; it was also supposed to substi¬ 
tute the thickening of the front of the hair pannel flap. You will find that many 
horses fall away at the part upon which the front of the flaps rests, and hair pannels 
in consequence are invariably made with much more stuffing under the front of 
the flap than is used in the other part of the flap. This thickening affords the 
rider a more comfortable and effectual position of leg than if the pannels were 
not so made. Whichever numnah pannel we get, I am assured, from much 
experience with them, that they will be an improvement. So far as stuffing is 
concerned, the pannels weighing 1 lb. are more than equal to 8 lbs. increase on 
the blanket, as they place the padding just where it is wanted. Again, they 
prevent injury to the animal’s shoulders should the front points of the saddle 
work over the front edge of the blanket; they raise the front arch over the 
wither, an absolute necessity on some horses ; they allow additions of numnah 
to be readily added to suit peculiar conformation ; they also save the side-bars 
from much rough wear. I hope we shall soon have them for every saddle used 
on a blanket. 
The 1884 pattern girth, we have here, is half-an-inch wider than the previous 
pattern leather girth; it is split into laces so as to give a yielding part behind 
the animals elbows, and to ventilate the part. The length of the solid piece in 
the centre was determined after measuring a number of horses. The laces act 
somewhat like the yielding part of a gymnastic belt; they should be kept soft. 
It does not so much matter whether the other parts are so or not. The girth 
should get a good bearing on the under part of the animal’s chest and on the 
body above the laces of the girth. The best girth, in my opinion, but it would 
be costly for universal saddles, is the broad woollen girth, which is used with a 
narrow one over it by many officers on their military and hunting saddles. 
