Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1893-02-09
HE MODERN sIoEsADDLE.

8tf8I1ky 4haS q 10 sohASA "
& Horseback Than Man Is.
About the year 1880, by an Academia
circumstance, women's riding was revo
Mionized. An Englishman made {.
wager to rfde;a steeplechase on a sid,t
saddle. a preliminary trial showee
him, i imagine, the rashness of thl
s attempt. So to minimize the DANCE,
By enabling him to sit safely, Mr.. Fitz
hardinge Oldacre, think, inventee
the third pommel. Looking back one
wonders how it was that women had no
long before invented it for themselves
under stress of urgent need. But one
generation followed another and no one
seems to have thought if 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 9 fine art by producing new de
parture under improved conditions. Fol
the grip obtainable by its means givet
the greatest possible security in ex
change for the least possible expenditure
of force.
Saddles of this kind were cumbrou.
and very heavy, but during the follow.
Ing fifty years the weight of construc
ton 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. It differs In several ways from
its prototype. In this modern saddle
the long narrow cantle is built over a
Sort of tunnel, which takes in the horses
withers and allows the seat of the saddle
TO lie fiat; 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 a 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 a shorter
y stiirup was necessary. Now, such greater
beverage led to an exaggeration Of
moyement, which prevented all rhythm,
! for obviously the closer, the rider can
sit the more possibility there viii be OF
being sone' with the horse, of riding 80
( as to blend with his sction, of, SO to
speak, following the pattern of his
smoyement- q -
In the modern saddle all MOI odifcations
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.
AM these grips. the first results from the
downward pressure Of the whole length
yof the right thigh and the upward press
urc Of the left. The second is the grip,
3 inst above the knee, of the right thigh
against the pommel, involving the press
SIire Of the leg just above the ankle on
the saddle flap below. This grip is
counterba1anced 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
stjrrup foot.
Moreover, by sitting far back the
leverage Of these three grips is in
sscreased, and the consequent distribution
Of The weight makes the balance right.
The legs must be inmoYable OH the
ssaddIe, but above the waist the body
ssways and gives to the horses action,
and from constant habit q good rider
justs tie balance almest by instinct,
ana carries on the horses movements in
So multiplicity Of TRY curves which pass
iinpercaptiblY from one step to another
HIho,1t any jerk OF Sabrup ptness of move
Hsh atea Magazine.