The Dalles daily chronicle. [volume] (The Dalles, Or.) 1890-1948, 1891-03-24
HOW. TO RIDE "A HORSE.
MhA4 MUST BE- odNE TO HAVE A
CORRECT SEAT AND SADDLE.


50 q ~
Reasons Why Many People Who Ride
Have So Much Trouble with Their
stirrups-A Riding Master Gives Some
Excelient Rules and Suggestions. a+s
A saddle is constructed right if it
gives the rider the greatest possible COM
fort and the most secure seat. with al
most total absence of exertion of mus
cles of his legs in order to maintain his
balance Almost every riding master
prefers certain make of saddle, and
teaches certain style of seat as the best,
and his pupils, taking perhaps little or
NO trouble to study others and to in
vestigate further, have to accept his
But, irrespective of the science of rid
ing, there is one shape of saddle which
is the most comfortable, viz, the saddle
which is SO constructed that, in accord
ance with the laws of gravity, the riders
body will and must sit in balance with
ont trying to do 80.
= Much has been said and written about
how you should sit ON the horse" Per
haps you have been told to grasp the
saddle or the horse firmly with thighs
or knees, to have your toes higher than
your heels. to keep the heels away from
the horse, to bend your back to be
springy or to straighten yourself to- sit
firmly, etc. Perhaps your teacher has
made great efforts and exhausted all re-
sources of his knowledge to impress
upon you how you should sit, and yet at
trot you lose the stirrups. you lose
your balance, and unless trotting very
slowly, and unless your horse has an
easy trot, you have to bring him to
walk to regain the stirrups.
Ii you are not experienced, and your
horse trots roughly you are in discom-
fort and in danger of losing your seat
IF your horse is nervous and not well
broken to the touch of the heel the flap
ping of the stirrups against his fanhs
renders him uneasy and prolongs the
task of getting your foot in the stirrup."
4s WHERE THE TROUBLE LIES.
Examine your saddle; it seems nice,
soft and comfortable; the stirrups as
heavy as should be-even their tread Gov
cred with leather or rubber to prevent
slpping from your foot; but slip they
will Why? Look at the shape of your
saddle. at the positions which the saddler
has assigned for your seat. thighs, knees
and feet, and see where he has attached
the bars for the stirrup feathers on the
saddle tree. Your saddle is perhaps too
long and, as most English style saddles.
Fat; it's lowest point, instead as near as
possible to the center, is back toward the
end; you are almost sitting on the cantle
In order to bring your knees to the knee
puffs, which are too far front, you have
10 stretch your legs forward. This
obliges you to carry your stirrips for
ward with your feet away from and in
front of the place where they would hang
by their own weight, and in order to
keep them at your feet. you have to
shorten the stirrup feathers and bear
heavily ON the stirrups. otherwise they
win slip back. A
What is the result? AS soon as your
foot loses the stirrup the latter, accord
ing to the law of gravity. returns to the
lowest position which the length of stir
rup leather allows far behind your foot:
= then your foot, too, having lost Its sup
port, and with nothing to bear against,
together with your leg, according to the
law of gravity. tries to slip back in order
70 hang as near as possible to thescen
ct gravity; and then your legs will hang
far back the knee puffs, perhaps on the
bare horse almost behind the saddle
skirts:
To avoid this by muscular exertion
you try to force your legs up and front
into a position very tiresome to main
tain. But if you, according to the law
Of gravity, have the lowest pointof the,
saddle in its center; if you have this
center as close as possible to the horses
back by reducing the thickness of the
saddle to a minimum; if you drop your
self into this lowest point of the saddle
TO stay there: if you drop your legs to
where they will stay by their own weight
instead of holding them forward and
raising them by muscular exertion; if
You have the stirrup leather bars
attached far enough back to be in line
with that place where your feet meet the
stirrups. with stirrup feathers so long as
to raise your toes high enough to give
you an elastic tread ON the stirrup with
out cranping the muscles of your thighs
and knees. then your body, legs, feet
and stirrups will maintain their posi-
tions by their own weights according to
the law of gravity: after each displace-
ment resulting from the movement of
the horse your body will fall back into
the lowest part of the saddle; your
thighs. knees and feet will not become
tired because you are not using muscu-
lar exertion to hold them in their places.
By the law of gravity they always fall
back into them. Your stirrups and feet,
even if disengaged from each other, will,
as it were, meet unintentionally at their
places If turning your toes slightly to-
ward the horse the stirrup will by its
own weight try to find its place and slip
ON your foot The displacements from
their positions of your body, thighs,
knees, feet and stirrups will be followed
by their involuntary movements accord
ing to the law of gravity to fail back
into the places which their weights as