But to the large flap on the near side

But to the large flap on the near side

Colonel Greenwood recommends that for fastening a ladies’ saddle-flaps an elastic webbing girth, and not a leather girth, should be used, and this attached, not, as is usually the case, to the small, but to the large flap on the near side. This will leave the near side small flap loose, as in a man’s saddle, and allow a spring bar to be used. But I have never seen, either in use or in a saddler’s shop, although I have constantly sought, a lady’s saddle so arranged with a spring bar for the stirrup-leather. This mode of attaching a web girth to the large flap will render the near side perfectly smooth, with the exception of the stirrup-leather, which he recommends to be a single thin strap as broad as a gentleman’s, fastened to the stirrup-leg by a loop or slipknot, and fixed over the spring bar of the saddle by a buckle like that on a man’s stirrup-leather. This arrangement, which the Colonel also recommends to gentlemen, presumes that the length of the stirrup-leather never requires altering more than an inch or two. It is a good plan for short men when travelling, and likely to ride strange horses, to carry their stirrup-leathers with them, as nothing is more annoying than to have to alter them in a hurry with the help of a blunt pen-knife.

Fonte: Tamming Horses