File:Cross country with horse and hound (1902) (14780816914).jpg

Identifier: crosscountrywith01peer (find matches)
Title: Cross country with horse and hound
Year: 1902 (1900s)
Authors: Peer, Frank Sherman
Subjects:
Publisher: New York, C. Scribner's sons
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: Sloan Foundation

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eathers, has no place in the hunting-field, where there isjumping to be done. We shall notice this more fullywhen we speak of riding by balance over fences. The best position of the legs, as of the arms, is thatwhich is most natural and at the same time gives thestirrup-leathers length in which to altei a riders positionforward and backward in negotiating a jump. Shorterstirrup-leathers than this are useless, besides impairing thesymmetry and ease of the rider. The best form for legsin cross-country riding is with the foot turned neither innor out more than is perfectly natural, and the leg fromthe instep to the knee perpendicular to the ground. Withthe stirrup-leather of proper length, the hollow of the legsbetween knee and calf will then fit the horses body atthe fullest part. This position gives the riders body thegreatest amount of sitting surface, erect and well back onthe saddle, which for hunting should be longer in the seatthan for ordinary riding. (See illustration, page 92.)
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Seat 95 I am persuaded that such a position, such form for arms,legs, and seat, together with entire dependence on balance,constitutes a way of riding at once the most natural andgraceful and the most secure. I never yet have seen theman who, riding at all by grip, could sit down well intohis saddle when his horse was at a canter. In this respectEnglish riders are something shocking. At every strideof the horse they go clear of their saddles with from oneto four inches of daylight between their saddles and them-selves. Except when a horse makes some extraordinarymovement, a man who rides by balance never shows theleast bit of daylight between himself and the leather. Thegrip man depends so much upon the pressure of his legsand puts so much of his weight upon his stirrups that theleast jar elevates him — bump, bump, bump. There are doubtless many riders in England, manyriding-school-taught riders in America and military-taughthunting men in other places, who are half or more thanhalf

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