Connecticut western news., 1892-04-14
TIE MODERN slpssApplE.
Why It Is That a Woman Is Safer on
 Horseback Than . Man Is-

Why It Is That a Woman Is Safer
 Horseback Than . Man Is.
 About the year lS30 by an accidental circumstance, women's riding was revo- lutionized. An Englishman made a wager to ride 8 steeplechase on a side saddle. A preliminary trial showed him, 1 imagine, the rashness of the attempt. So to minimize the danger by enabling him to sit safely, MT. Fitz- hardinge Oldacre, l think, invented the third pommel Looking back one wonders how it was that women had not long before invented it for themselves under stress of urgent need. But one generation followed another and no one seems to have thought of it. Once in- vented, however, it was immediately adopted, and three pommeled side saddle came into general use. This in- vention at once reinstated women's rid ing as fine art by producing new de- parture under improved conditions. For the grip obtainable by its means gives the greatest possible security in ex- change for the least possible expenditure of force.
 Saddles of this kind were cumbrous and very heavy, but during the follow ing fifty years the weight of construc- tion was gradually reduced, and little by little every unnecessary item was cut away, till in course of time the three pommeled saddle evolved into the long, light hunting saddle actually In use at present. 1t differs in several ways from its prototype. In this modern saddle the long narrow cantle is built over sort of tunnel, which takes in the horses withers and allows the seat of the saddle to lie flat; while the old fashioned seat sloped up and tilted the riders knee with much the same effect as riding up hill.
 All traces of the outer pommel have disappeared, leaving free space where no resistance is necessary. Finally, the left hand pommel is placed high up the thigh, where the grip is strongest, the pressure having formerly been placed just above the knee, so that shorter stirup was necessary. Now, such greater leverage led to an exaggeration of movement. which prevented all rhythm, for obviously the closer the rider can sit the more possibility there will be of being ..one" with the horse, of riding so as to blend with his action, of, 90 to speak, following the pattern of his movement.
 In the modern saddle all notifications tend to diminish effort and by greater security to enable the rider to sit very still. Strength of seat seems to me to be the result, roughly speaking, of three grips, caused by the opposing pressure of the two legs against the pommels. Of these grips. the first results from the downward pressure of the whole length of the right thigh and the upward press ure of the left. The second is the grip, just above the knee, of the right thigh against the pommel, involving the press ure of the leg just above the ankle on the saddle flap below. This grip is counterbalanced by the left legs inward pressure at the knee. And, third, the hook back of the right leg over the pom mel as opposed to the pressure of the stirrup foot.
 Moreover, by sitting far back the leverage of these three grips is in- creased, and the consequent distribution of the weight makes the balance right The legs must be immovable on the saddle, but above the waist the body sways and gives to the horses action, and from constant habit a good rider adjusts the balance almost by instinct, and carries on the horses movements in a multiplicity of tiny curves which pass imperceptibly from one step to another without any jerk or abruptness of move ment.-English Illustrated Magazine.