In all the services which the horse renders and in all the relations which he bears to his master, there is no relation in which they can be made to appear to such great mutual advantage as when the one animal is carrying the other on his back. There is no occasion on which a beautiful horse looks so well as when gracefully mounted and skillfully handled by a lady or gentleman. And, I will add, there is no occasion when a lady or gentleman, who is at home in the saddle, looks so well as when mounted on a beautiful and well-trained American horse. England has no saddle horses, and never can have any till she secures American blood and adopts American methods. The shortening of the stirrups and the swinging up and down like a tilt-hammer is not, with our English friends, a matter of choice, but a necessity to avoid being jolted to death. Their very silly imitators, on this side, think they can’t afford to be out of the fashion, because “it’s English, you know.” For safety, true gentility, and comfort the military seat is the only seat, and if you have a horse upon which you can’t keep that seat without punishment, he is no saddle horse. If your doctor tells you that your liver needs shaking up, mount an English trotting horse, but if you ride for pleasure and fresh air, get a horse that is bred and trained to the saddle gaits. There is just as much difference between the two horses as the difference between a springless wagon on a cobble-stone pavement and a richly upholstered coach on the asphalt. The American Saddle Horse has an origin as well as a history. His origin dates back thousands of years, and his history has been preserved in art and in letters since the beginning of the Christian era. For centuries he was the fashionable horse in England, and the only horse ridden by the nobility and gentry. Away back in the reign of Elizabeth it was not an uncommon thing to use hopples to teach and compel trotters to pace, just as in our day hopples are often used to teach and compel pacers to trot. In the early settlement of the American colonies pacers were far more numerous than trotters, and this continued to be the case till after the War of the Revolution. The great influx of running blood after that period practically banished the pacer to the western frontiers, where a remnant has been preserved for the uses of the saddle; and on account of his great speed and gameness he has again returned to popular favor in our own day.