rom being damaged in the eighth century." Cannot
our laws do something to protect mares, at any rate, from the cruelty of
docking in the twentieth century? Dr. Fleming, in reviewing the history
of docking from its earliest times, tells us that he saw an old print
"which represented a very emaciated horse, with a fashionable tail,
standing in a luxuriant meadow, his body covered with flies, which
prevented him from grazing, and from which he could not free himself; a
notice board in the field announced that horses were taken in to graze,
those with undocked tails at six shillings a week and docked ones at
eighteenpence."

When Voltaire visited this country in the first quarter of the
eighteenth century, he was so impressed with our barbarity, especially
in the cutting off the tails of our horses, that he could not refrain
from giving vent to one of his pungent sarcasms in the following
epigram:--

"Vous fiers Anglois
Barbares que vous etes
Coupez la tete aux rois
Et la queue a vos betes;
Mais les Francois,
Polis et droits,
Aiment les lois,
Laissent la queue aux betes
Et la tete a leurs rois."

CHAPTER III.

SIDE-SADDLES.

Description of a Side-Saddle--Saddle Tree--Covering of a
Side-Saddle--Panel--The Leaping Head--Stirrup Leather--Safety
Bars--Safety Stirrups--Girths--Balance Strap--Breast-plate--Weight
of a Side-Saddle--Shape of the Seat of a Side-Saddle--The Saddle
must Fit the Rider--Crupper--Numdahs and Saddle
Cloths--Side-Saddles for Children--Saddling a Horse--Prevention of
Sore Backs--Cleaning a Side-Saddle.

DESCRIPTION OF A SIDE-SADDLE.

A properly made side-saddle consists of the following parts:--

1. A _tree_, which is a wooden frame that is strengthened with steel and
iron, and is provided with an _upper crutch_ (_near head_) and _webs_.

2. A _leather covering_, which comprises the _seat_, _off flap_, and
_safe_, which is the trade term for the near flap.

3. A _panel_ (or cushion), which is placed underneath the tree, so as to
protect the animal's back from the hurtful pressure of the unprotected
tree.

4. A _leaping head_, which helps the lady to obtain security of seat.

5. A _stirrup leather_.

6. A _stirrup iron_.

7. A _stirrup bar_ for the stirrup leather.

8. _Girths._

9. _Balance strap._

To these ordinary components of a side-saddle, a _breast-plate_ and
_saddle cloth_ or _numdah_