lustration: Fig. 21.--Foot caught.]

[Illustration: Fig. 22.--Latchford stirrup.]

[Illustration: Fig. 23.--Scott's stirrup.]

[Illustration: Fig. 24.--Scott's stirrup open.]

* * * * *

The _chief faults of so-called safety stirrups_ are as follows:--

1. They may catch on the foot, on account of getting crushed by coming
in violent contact with a tree, wall or other hard object, or by the
horse falling on his near side. When I was living in India, I had a
Scott safety stirrup jammed on my foot in this manner, by a horse which
I was riding, making a sudden shy and dashing against a wall. The iron
was so firmly fixed to my foot by this accident, that it could not be
taken off until, after much pain and trouble, my foot was freed from
both boot and stirrup. Had I been unseated, I would probably have been
killed, because my saddle had not a safety bar.

[Illustration: Fig. 25.--Cope's stirrup.]

2. Those which open only when the foot is put into them in one way, are
apt to cause a fatal accident if put in the wrong way, which may easily
happen from carelessness or ignorance (p. 64). The methods (straight
edge of "tread," or word "heel") used with these stirrups, to indicate
the proper side on which to put the foot into the iron, may convey no
meaning to persons who are not well acquainted with the details of
side-saddle gear, and in moments of hurry and excitement may be easily
overlooked.

3. Any ordinary safety stirrup which is used without a safety bar may
cause a lady to get "hung up," if she is thrown to the off side and her
heel gets jammed against the saddle in the manner shown in Fig. 28.

[Illustration: Fig. 26.--Foot released by Cope's stirrup.]

4. If the outer iron is small in comparison to the size of the foot, the
rider may easily get dragged.

5. If the outer iron of a Scott's reversible safety stirrup is large in
comparison to the size of the foot (as in the case of a young girl),
the rider may get dragged in the event of a fall, by the foot going
through the stirrup. Accidents caused by a foot going through a stirrup
have often occurred to men from falls when hunting and steeplechasing.

[Illustration: Fig. 27.--Scott's stirrup.]

Some ladies think it "smart" to ride with a man's ordinary stirrup iron,
or (madder still) with a small racing stirrup, attached to a leather
which does not come out. I once saw a lady who adopted this senseless
plan fall and get dr