Low—Pommelled
SIR,—I would allow George Brinsmead almost all his epithets in Gaucho Elections, but not " high-pommelled " to his gaucho's saddle. The Argentine recado (in contrast to the Mexican development of Spanish saddlery), formed as it is of bastos, two sausage-like tubes stuffed with straw or pig-skin, laid on the carona, a large sheet of thick leather, and all secured by the encimera and cinch, is a peculiarly pommel-less saddle, which Don Roberto Cunninghame Graham called " a billiard table for riding." Even in the northern provinces the lomillo or recado is preferred to the pommelled Chaco saddle. The decoration of the recado consists mainly in the elaborate tooling of the carona and gold or silver plates on the ends of the bastos.—Yours faithfully, CHARLES ARMOUR. 17 Queen's Gardens, St. Andrews, Fife.
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