. Riding and driving. it is impossiblethat the hand should act with lightness and pre-cision if his seat is so feeble that under any cir-cumstances he should depend upon the reins formaintaining his position on the horse. Whether it be for pleasure, sport, or war, aman has one seat that is the best possible. Thisis readily obtained, even upon mounting the horsefor the first time; but to keep it exactly under themore or less vigorous movements of the horserequires long practice and a suppleness of thebody in every part, that comes from carefully fol-lowed exercises in the saddle. The seat about
. Riding and driving. it is impossiblethat the hand should act with lightness and pre-cision if his seat is so feeble that under any cir-cumstances he should depend upon the reins formaintaining his position on the horse. Whether it be for pleasure, sport, or war, aman has one seat that is the best possible. Thisis readily obtained, even upon mounting the horsefor the first time; but to keep it exactly under themore or less vigorous movements of the horserequires long practice and a suppleness of thebody in every part, that comes from carefully fol-lowed exercises in the saddle. The seat about to be described was that of theearliest riders, represented by Pheidias, describedby Xenophon, employed by the Bedouins andother Eastern horsemen, when no cumbrous treeswith a dip of varying parts of a circle interferedwith a position that was safe, natural, and rational,— the seat in use before those saddles which held64 J| . :^:t,^^-^ p Tl FIG. WITHOUT STIRRUPS —n 1 .. -t- FIG. 37.—SEAT WITH STIRRUPS. FIG. 38. —LEANING BACK The Seat 65 the rider between high pommels and high cantlesdemanding a standing posture in the stirrups thatprohibited the grasp of the knees and thighs andthe pHancy of the body which gives friction andbalance to the mounted man. I may say here that the saddletree was notused until the Romans introduced it sometimein the fourth century, and the stirrup followed inthe seventh century, first as an aid in mountingand finally as a support. The Greeks and theirancestors and the horsemen of the EuphratesValley rode upon cloths and skins, without stir-rups and without trees. The first mention of thehorse that we find upon the monuments is sup-posed to date about 3800 years before our first representation of the horse is upon alittle wooden disk now in the British Museum, inwhich two horses attached to a chariot by har-nesses that closely resemble those now in use areshown; and this work is ascribed to Aahmes I.(about 1700 ) and sugg
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