Page:Annals of horsemanship (1792).djvu/52

 on the pommel of the saddle, an entire stop might be put to the practice of falling; except where the practitioner should voluntarily take a tumble, for the express purpose of studying the Parabola, or Hippopiptic Curve. The wheel and axle is already applied in the use of horses, though not in any branch of Horsemanship, except the driving of post-chaises; it is also found so efficacious in preventing falls, that where a horse has been used to that assistance, it is not reckoned safe to ride him without it. The application of the wedge might, undoubtedly, very materially improve the art of figging. The screw might, with advantage, be applied to the direction of the horse's head with more exactness, and consequently enable the rider to guide his course with mathematical accuracy. The inclined plane might happily be introduced to facilitate the backward slide of the rider at the time of rearing, as above mentioned. And a system of pullies, in the nature of Mr. Smeaton's, by giving the rider a force equal to the action of many thousand pounds weight, might