d will vary according to the
thickness of limb. We shall see on pages 150 to 152, that the position
of the upper crutch which will suit a lady who hooks back her right leg,
will not be applicable to one who carries her right foot forward; and
_vice versa_. A saddle which suits a rider's style of equitation will
invariably fit her, if its tree and its crutches are long enough. Hence,
if more than one member of a family wants to ride and there is only one
horse, a saddle which will fit the biggest will suit all the rest.

CRUPPER.

The office of a crupper is to prevent the saddle working forward on the
horse's back, which it will not do if the animal is of a proper shape
and the girths sufficiently tight. In ancient days, when riding-horses
were more rotund than they are now, and saddles were not so well made,
cruppers were generally used, but within the last forty years they have
gone entirely out of fashion. A crupper is not to be despised in
out-of-the-way parts abroad, when we have to ride animals of all sorts
and sizes, and when we have only one saddle.

NUMDAHS AND SADDLE-CLOTHS.

As the principles which regulate the use of these appliances with cross
saddles are the same as those with side saddles, I cannot do better than
give the following extract from _Riding and Hunting_, with one or two
additions:

"Saddle-cloths are generally made of felt, and their primary object is
to prevent the panel from soaking up sweat and becoming thereby soiled
and more or less spoiled. The term numdah or numnah, which is applied to
felt saddle-cloths, is derived from a Hindustani word that signifies
'felt.' A saddle-cloth should be as thin as efficiency in serving its
purpose will allow it to be, so that it may give as little play as
possible to the saddle. Although the fitting of the saddle should as far
as practicable be limited to the adjustment of the shape of the tree and
to regulating the amount of stuffing in the panel; the use of a numdah
with a saddle which does not fit the horse or which is not sufficiently
stuffed, is often a valuable makeshift when necessity gives no other
choice. The employment of an ordinary saddle-cloth is accompanied by the
slight disadvantage, that the middle line of the back which is covered
by the saddle is deprived of the benefit of air circulating along it, by
the fact of the saddle-cloth resting on it. An attempt to remedy this
objection is sometimes made by cutting a longitudinal piece