What is the legitimate use of the stirrups besides enabling us to mount our horses? The first and most obvious one is to give the rider lateral support, to prevent his slipping off to the right or left by his seat revolving round the horse's body as a wheel does round an axle. In riding bare-backed, or on a saddle without stirrups, if the rider falls it is most generally to one side, and not directly forwards or backwards; and it is very evident that the more directly under the rider's seat the stirrups be suspended, the more efficiently will they perform this duty, the resistance offered by them being perpendicularly upwards, or precisely in the opposite direction to that in which the weight falls, which is perpendicularly downwards; whereas, if the stirrups be suspended at a distance from the rider's seat, they act at an angle to the line of fall: they may, and always do, in such a position change the direction of the fall, but they cannot meet and prevent it so efficiently as when placed under the seat. The second use of these contrivances is to enable the rider, for various purposes, to rise in his saddle by standing in the stirrups. here a distinction must be drawn as to whether it is the rider's object to transmit his own weight indirectly through the stirrups to the saddle at the same point at which he previously applied it directly with his seat, or at some other point. In the first case it is very obvious that the stirrups are best placed exactly under the rider's seat; for, putting aside any changes of the position of his own body from the hips upwards he

very glaring ones that are very obvious in the French seat, and were the immediate causes of all the sore backs in the campaign of 1859, depend on the wrong position of the stirrup in the respective military saddles.

may please to make, everything remains as before, and the equilibrium of the horse is not disturbed. In the second case, on the contrary, supposing the stirrups to be placed far forwards, and the rider far back in the saddle, standing in the stirrups will at once throw the weight from one end of the saddle to the other; make this press partially on the horse's back instead of equably, as in the first case, which see-sawing must tend to make the saddle shift, and must also alter the equilibrium of the horse, throwing its weight more forward, consequently rendering the animal incapable of turning sharply and handily, and, if done suddenly, frequently even bringing it to a dead halt. In hunting, sharp turns are seldom required, whilst speed is; and therefore there is a justification for throwing the weight forwards or backwards, especially in jumping; but even this has certain limits, of which more hereafter. Again, in road-riding, the English fashion of trotting requires a man to rise in his stirrups ; but there is really no reason why he should therefore sacrifice the lateral support spoken of above to the extent one often sees, or throw such a surplusage of weight on his horse's forehand. There can be no doubt that he rides less safely by so doing, for a sharp wheel-round of a shying horse is more likely to bring him down; but this question of trotting must be also reserved for a future chapter.

For military purposes the stirrups must be placed in the centre of the saddle directly under the rider's seat: there is no alternative. The cavalry soldier is often compelled in the use of his weapons to stand in his stirrups. If by doing so the equilibrium of his horse be altered, he disables the animal and himself at the most

critical moment. The power of turning rapidly to administer or avoid a sword-cut or lance-thrust is seriously impaired if the stirrups be placed forward, and the whole concern makes a heavy pitch into the trough of the sea, just at the moment it should "run up into the wind's eye." The late Sir Charles Napier relates in one of his books a lamentable story of a fine gallant English sergeant who lost both his arms in this way; and officers who have served in India or Algiers often complain that there is no preventing the native horsemen getting behind their people's backs, where, of course, they have it all their own way, like a bull in a china shop. Sir Charles throws the blame altogether on the enormous pack the regulars are compelled to put on their horses' backs. This has, no doubt, its own special influence; but any one who has seen cavalry skirmishing, and understands the mechanism we are labouring to explain, must have also seen that the position of the stirrup acting on the rider's seat has a great deal to do with it.

We mentioned above that the man riding barebacked, or on a saddle without stirrups, most frequently tumbles off to the right or left; well, it will be found that with stirrups, especially when the latter are very far forward and very short, the catastrophe generally supervenes right ahead, the performer being projected in trajectories, not yet described in ballistic works, away over his steed's neck, to the great damage of collar-bones. It is like having one's hand pierced by

* Almost all "rider nations" place their stirrups exactly under their seat. This will be evident from an inspection of some of our Plates, as also that the example has been followed in the best Continental cavalries.

leaning on a reed-the short stirrup that is relied on for safety furnishing an admirable lever-point for the equine catapult.

And this brings us to the length of the stirrup. The length of the arm is generally prescribed as being the proper length for the stirrup. This might answer well enough if stirrups were always suspended at the same perpendicular distance from the upper surface of the saddle, and also right under the rider's seat, and if men's arms and legs always bore a fixed proportion to one another; all of which "ifs" turn out on nearer inspection to be algebraical 's-that is, very variable quantities. To adjust the stirrups precisely, the rider had better first mount, and then, letting these instruments loose altogether, shake himself down into the lowest part of the saddle, wherever that may be situated; his assistant may then adjust the stirrups to a convenient length. There is no use in attempting to ignore this lowest point, because every motion of the horse tends invariably to throw him into it, and if he does persist in ignoring it, he will find himself a mere stirrup-rider, which is, in its way, quite as bad as a rein- rider, the combination of both being the very climax of bad riding-in fact that monkey-like fashion of clinging to your steed vulgarly termed "sticking a horse." For the absolute length of the stirrup no special rule can be given, applicable to all circumstances and to all kinds of riding; in speaking of the different kinds of seats in a subsequent chapter we shall have to return to this point. The only general rule that can be given is, never make your stirrups so long as to render your tread on them insecure, nor so short as to allow them to cramp up your legs and de

prive them of the requisite power of motion, making you depend on the stirrups and not on your seat for your position in the saddle. The Orientals all ride in the short stirrups in which they can stand resting on the entire sole of their feet on account of the shovel shape and the size of this contrivance; but* their stirrups are hung directly under their seat, and in a very different position from that which they occupy in our saddles (see Plate IV). Short stirrups on an English saddle give quite a different form to the seat in consequence.

With respect to the upper surface, or seat, of the saddle, we have to remark, that as the under one must be large in proportion to the weight, so this should be roomy in proportion to the bulk of the rider: a heavy man will always require a large under surface, but not equally constantly a large upper one, for it is bone that weighs; and as, whatever the seat may be, it should be permanent in some one part of the saddle, there is not only no use, but a positive disadvantage, on account of weight, in having it larger above than is absolutely necessary. It is, however, the form of the upper surface that decides most as to the permanence of the seat. If what we may call the ridge of the saddle be perfectly horizontal, the seat will be determined chiefly by the length and position of the stirrup, because the two surfaces, rider and saddle, are in imperfect contact; and it is therefore usual to dip this ridge at some point and spread it out into a more or less concave surface. Now the form of the seat will depend altogether on the relative position of the lowest point of this dip; if it be placed far back the rider will remain there, and if it be placed in the centre the seat will be also cen