[Illustration: Fig. 11.--Underneath view of saddle tree and its webs.]

COVERING OF A SIDE-SADDLE.

The seats of good saddles are generally of pigskin, and the flaps of
cow-hide. The fact of the seat being of buckskin or other rough leather
will increase the lady's security in the saddle, but may somewhat
detract from the smartness of her appearance, especially if the leather
is white. I can see no objection to the seat of the saddle being of
rough brown leather. Formerly, all side-saddles had a "stuffed safe," in
which the front part of the near flap is padded, but nowadays it is
rarely, if ever, used by smart hunting people. It is evidently the
surviving remains of the voluminous pad, upon which ladies used to rest
the lower part of their right leg in the days before the leaping head
was invented. Ornamental stitching about the seat and safe of a saddle
is equally out of date.

PANEL.

It is all important that the panel should be so carefully stuffed, that
the rider's weight will be evenly distributed over the bearing surfaces
of her animal's back. Even if this is done to perfection, the desirable
arrangement will last for only a short time, if the stuffing is of the
wrong kind of material. Instead of using fine wool (best flock),
incompetent or unduly economical saddlers often employ flock which is
largely composed of cotton waste, and, consequently, when they stuff or
re-stuff a saddle, lumps, from the absorption of perspiration, are apt
to form in the panel, with the frequent result of a sore back. Although
the stuffing of side-saddles is too technical a subject to attack in
these pages, I would fail in my duty to my readers if I omitted to
advise them always to go to a first-class saddler for a new saddle, or
to get an old one re-stuffed, which should be done as may be required,
preferably, before the beginning of the hunting season, supposing that
the saddle has seen a good deal of service. It is often thought that
expert saddlers are to be found only in London; but if a saddler is
clever at his trade, the fact of his having a shop in a good hunting
district, must be a great advantage to him in studying the requirements
of riding people.

THE LEAPING HEAD

was invented about 1830 by M. Pellier, who was well known in Paris as a
riding master. Its object is to help the rider to obtain security of
seat by a fixed surface against which she can press the front and lower
part of her left thigh. Before