New Method of Horsemanship / Including the Breaking and Training of Horses, with Instructions for Obtaining a Good Seat.

CHAPTER VII.

How can the truth be made out in the midst of this conflict of such contrary principles? Besides, they come from such respectable sources; the most of their authors were possessed of titles and dignities which are generally only granted to merit. Have they all been deceived for a hundred and fifty years? This is not possible; for many of them joined to long practice a perfect knowledge of physics, anatomy, mathematics, etc., etc. To doubt such authorities would be as presumptuous as imprudent; it would have been considered a crime of high treason against horsemanship. So the riders kept their ignorance and the horses their bad equilibrium; and if any one succeeded, after two or three years of routine labor, in making certain horses of a privileged organization start with the desired foot, and in making them change feet finally, at a fixed point, the difficulty then was to prevent them from always repeating this movement at the same place.

Thus it is that the most palpable errors gain credit, and often are perpetuated, until there comes a practical mind, gifted with some amount of common sense, who contradicts by practice all the learned theories of its predecessors. They try hard at first to deny the knowledge of the innovator; but the masses who instinctively know the true, and judge from what they see, soon range themselves on his side, turn their backs upon his detractors, and leave them to their solitude and vain pretensions.

To the mass of horsemen I address myself, when I say, either the horse is under the influence of your forces, and entirely submissive to your power, or you are struggling with him. If he gallops off with you, without your being able to modify or direct with certainty his course, it proves that, although subject to a certain extent to your power in thus consenting to carry you about, he, nevertheless, uses his instinctive forces. In this case, there is a perpetual fight going on between you and him, the chances of which depend on the temperament and caprice of the animal, upon the good or bad state of his digestion. Changes of foot, in such a state, can only be obtained by inclining the horse very much to one side, which makes the movement both difficult and ungraceful.

If, on the contrary, the animal is made submissive to a degree that he cannot contract any one of his parts without the intervention and aid of the rider, the latter can direct at his pleasure the whole of his moving parts, and, consequently, can easily and promptly execute changes of feet.

We know the contraction of any one part of the horse reacts on the neck, and that the stiffness of this part prevents the proper execution of every movement. If, then, at the moment of setting off on a gallop, the horse stiffens one of his extremities, and consequently his neck, of what use in determining him in starting with the right foot can be the support of one or the other leg of the rider, or even of that of both at once? These means will evidently be ineffectual until we go back to the source of the resistance, for the purpose of combating and destroying it. Here, as in every other case, we see that suppleness and lightness alone can make the execution of the work easy.

If, when we wish to make the horse start with the right foot, a slight contraction of one part of the animal disposes him to start with the left foot, and we persist in inducing the pace, we must employ two forces on the same side, viz.: the left leg and the left hand; the first to determine the movement, the second to combat the contrary disposition of the horse.

But when the horse, perfectly supple and gathered, only brings his parts into play after the impression given them by the rider, the latter, in order to start with the right foot, ought to combine an opposition of forces proper for keeping the horse in equilibrium, while placing him in the position required for the movement. He will then bear the hand to the left, and press his right leg. Here we see that the means mentioned above, necessary when the horse is not properly placed, would be wrong when the animal is properly placed, since it would destroy the harmony then existing between his forces.

This short explanation will, I hope, suffice to make it understood that things should be studied thoroughly before laying down any principles of action. Let us have no more systems, then, upon the exclusive use of such or such leg to determine the gallop; but a settled conviction that the first condition of this or any other performance is to keep the horse supple and light—that is rassemblé; then, after this, to make use of one or the other motive power, according as the animal, at the start, preserves a proper position, or seeks to leave it. It must also be understood that, while it is the force that gives the position to the horse, it is position alone upon which the regularity of movement depends.

Passing frequently from the gallop with the right foot to that with the left, in a straight line, and with halts, will soon bring the horse to make these changes of feet by the touch without halting. Violent effects of force should be avoided, which would bewilder the horse and destroy his lightness. We must remember that this lightness which should precede all changes of pace and direction, and make every movement easy, graceful and inevitable, is the important condition we should seek before everything else.

It is because they have not understood this principle, and have not felt that the first condition to dispose a horse for the gallop is to destroy all the instinctive forces of the animal (forces that oppose the position the movement demands), that horsemen have laid down so many erroneous principles, and have all remained unable to show us the proper means to be employed.

Of leaping the ditch and the bar.—Although the combinations of equestrian science alone cannot give to every horse the energy and vigor necessary to clear a ditch or a bar, there are, nevertheless, principles by the aid of which we will succeed in partly supplying the deficiencies in the natural formation of the animal. By giving a good direction to the forces, we will facilitate the rise and freedom of the bound. I do not pretend by this, to say, that a horse of ordinary capabilities will attain the same height and elegance in this movement as one that is well constituted, but he will, at least, be able to display in it all the resources of his organization to more purpose.

The great thing is to bring the horse to attempt this performance with good will. If all the processes prescribed by me for mastering the instinctive forces of the animal, and putting him under the influence of ours, have been punctually followed, the utility of this progression will be recognized by the facility we have of making the horse clear all the objects that are encountered in his way. For the rest, recourse must never be had, in case of a contest, to violent means, such as a whip in the hands of a second person; nor should we seek to excite the animal by cries; this could only produce a moral effect calculated to frighten him. It is by physical means that we should before all bring him to obedience, since they alone will enable him to understand and execute. We should then carry on the contest calmly, and seek to surmount the forces that lead him to refuse, by acting directly on them. To make the horse leap, we will wait till he responds freely to the legs and spur, in order to have always a sure means of government.

The bar will remain on the ground until the horse goes over it without hesitation; it will then be raised some inches, progressively increasing the height until the animal will be just able to clear it without too violent an effort. To exceed this proper limit would be to risk causing a disgust on the part of the horse that should be most carefully avoided. The bar having been thus gradually raised, ought to be made fast, in order that the horse, disposed to be indolent, should not make sport of an obstacle which would be no longer serious, when the touch of his feet sufficed to overturn it. The bar ought not to be wrapped in any covering that would lessen its hardness; we should be severe when we demand possibilities, and avoid the abuses that always result from an ill-devised complaisance.

Before preparing to take the leap, the rider should hold himself sufficiently firm to prevent his body preceding the motion of the horse. His loins should be supple, his buttocks well fixed to the saddle, so that he may experience no shock nor violent reaction. His thighs and legs exactly enveloping the body and sides of the horse will give him a power always opportune and infallible. The hand in its natural position will feel the horse's mouth in order to judge of the effects of impulsion. It is in this position that the rider should conduct the horse towards the obstacle; if he comes up to it with the same freedom of pace, a light opposition of the legs and hand will facilitate the elevation of the fore-hand, and the bound of the posterior extremity. As soon as the horse is raised, the hand ceases its effect, to be again sustained when the fore legs touch the ground, and to prevent them giving way under the weight of the body.

We should content ourselves with executing a few leaps in accordance with the horse's powers, and, above all, avoid pushing bravado to the point of wishing to force the animal to clear obstacles that are beyond his powers. I have known very good leapers that people have succeeded in thus disgusting forever, so that no efforts could induce them to clear things only half the height of those that at first they leaped with ease.

Of the piaffer.[R]—Until now, horsemen have maintained that the nature of each horse permits of only a limited number of movements, and that if there are some that can be brought to execute a piaffer high and elegant, or low and precipitate, there are a great number of them to whom this exercise is for ever interdicted. Their construction, they say, is opposed to it; it is then nature that has so willed it; ought we not to bow before this supreme arbiter, and respect its decrees?

For the piaffer to be regular and graceful, it is necessary that the horse's legs, moved diagonally, rise together and fall in the same way upon the ground at as long intervals as possible. The animal ought not to bear more upon the hand than upon the legs of the rider, that his equilibrium may present the perfection of that balance of which I have spoken in another place. When the centre of the forces is thus disposed in the middle of the body, and when the rassembler is perfect, it is sufficient, in order to induce a commencement of piaffer, to communicate to the horse with the legs a vibration at first slight, but often repeated. By vibration I mean an invigoration of forces, of which the rider ought always to be the agent.

After this first result, the horse will be put at a walk, and the rider's legs gradually brought close, will give the animal a slight increase of action. Then, but only then, the hand will sustain itself in time with the legs, and at the same intervals, in order that these two motive powers, acting conjointly, may keep up a succession of imperceptible movements, and produce a slight contraction which will spread itself over the whole body of the horse. This reiterated activity will give the extremities a first mobility, which at the beginning will be far from regular, since the increase of action that this new exercise makes necessary will for the moment break the harmonious uniformity of the forces. But this general action is necessary in order to obtain even an irregular mobility, for without it the movement would be disorderly, and there would be a want of harmony among the different springs. We will content ourselves, for the first few days, with a commencement of mobility of the extremities, being careful to stop each time that the horse raises or puts down his feet, without advancing them too much, in order to caress him, and speak to him, and thus calm the invigoration that a demand, the object of which he does not understand, must cause in him. Nevertheless, these caresses should be employed with discernment, and when the horse has done well, for if badly applied they would be rather injurious than useful. The fit time for ceasing with the hands and legs is more important still; it demands all the rider's attention.

The mobility of the legs once obtained, we can commence to regulate it, and fix the intervals of the cadence. Here again, I seek in vain to indicate with the pen the degree of delicacy necessary in the rider's proceedings, since his motions ought to be answered by the horse with an exactness and à propos that is unequaled. It is by the alternated support of the two legs that he will succeed in prolonging the lateral balancings of the horse's body, in such way as to keep him longer on one side or the other. He will seize the moment when the horse prepares to rest his fore leg on the ground, to make the pressure of his own leg felt on the same side, and add to the inclination of the animal in the same direction. If this time is well seized, the horse will balance himself slowly, and the cadence will acquire that elevation so fit to bring out all its elegance and all its majesty. These times of the legs are difficult, and require great practice; but their results are too splendid for the rider not to strive to seize the light variations of them.

The precipitate movement of the rider's legs accelerates also the piaffer. It is he, then, who regulates at will the greater or less degree of quickness of the cadence. The performance of the piaffer is not elegant and perfect until the horse performs it without repugnance, which will always be the case when the forces are kept together, and the position is suitable to the demands of the movement. It is urgent, then, to be well acquainted with the amount of force necessary for the performance of the piaffer, so as not to overdo it. We should, above all, be careful to keep the horse rassemblé, which, of itself, will induce the movement without effort.

CHAPTER VIII.

First lesson. Eight days of work.—The first twenty minutes of this lesson will be devoted to the stationary exercise for the flexions of the jaw and neck; the rider first on foot, and then on horseback, will follow the progression I have previously indicated. During the last ten minutes, he will make the horse go forward at a walk without trying to animate him, but applying himself all the while to keeping his head in the position of ramener. He will content himself with executing a single change of hand, in order to go as well to the right hand as to the left. The fourth or fifth day, the rider, before putting his horse in motion, will make him commence some slight flexions of the croup.

Second lesson. Ten days of work.—The first fifteen minutes will be occupied in the stationary supplings, comprising the flexions of the croup performed more completely than in the preceding lesson; then will begin the backing. We will devote the other half of the lesson to the moving straight ahead, once or twice taking the trot at a very moderate pace. The rider during this second part of the work, without ceasing to pay attention to the ramener, will yet commence light oppositions of hands and legs, in order to prepare the horse to bear the combined effects, and to give regularity to his paces. We will also commence the changes of direction at a walk, while preserving the ramener, and being careful to make the head and neck always go first.

Third lesson. Twelve days of work.—Six or eight minutes only will at first be occupied in the stationary flexions; those of the hind-parts should be pushed to the completion of the reversed pirouettes. We will continue by the backing; then all the rest of the lesson will be devoted to perfecting the walk and the trot, commencing at this latter pace the changes of direction. The rider will often stop the horse, and continue to watch attentively the ramener during the changes of pace or direction. He will also commence the exercise de deux pistes at a walk, as well as the rotation of the shoulders around the haunches.

Fourth lesson. Fifteen days of work.—After five minutes being devoted to the stationary supplings, the rider will first repeat all the work of the preceding lessons; he will commence, with a steady foot, the attaques,[S] in order to confirm the ramener and prepare the rassembler. He will renew the attaques while in motion, and when the horse bears them patiently, he will commence the gallop. He will content himself in the commencement with executing four or five lopes only before resuming the walk, and then start again with a different foot, unless the horse requires being exercised more often on one foot than the other. In passing from the gallop to the walk, we should watch with care that the horse resumes this latter pace as quickly as possible without taking short steps on a trot, all the while keeping the head and neck light. He will only be exercised at the gallop at the end of each lesson.

In establishing the above order of work, be it well understood that I found myself on the dispositions of horses in general. A horseman of any tact will soon understand the modifications that he ought to make in their application, according to the particular nature of his pupil. Such a horse, for example, will require more or less persistence in the flexions; another one in the backing; this one, dull and apathetic, will require the use of the spurs before the time I have indicated. All this is an affair of intelligence; it would be to insult my readers not to suppose them capable of supplying to the details what it is elsewhere impossible to particularize. You can readily understand that there are irritable, ill-disposed horses, whose defective dispositions have been made worse by previous bad management. With such subjects it is necessary to put more persistence into the supplings and the walk. In every case, whatever the slight modifications that the difference in the dispositions of the subjects render necessary, I persist in saying that there are no horses whose education ought not to be completed by my method in the space I designate. I mean here, that this time is sufficient to give the forces of the horse the fitness necessary for executing all the movements; the finish of education depends finally on the nicety of touch of the rider. In fact, my method has the advantages of recognizing no limits to the progress of equitation, and there is no performance equestrianly possible that a horseman who understands properly applying my principles cannot make his horse execute. I am about to give a convincing proof in support of this assertion, by explaining the sixteen new figures of the manège that I have added to the collection of the old masters.

CHAPTER IX.

The persons who systematically denied the efficacy of my method ought, necessarily, also to deny the results shown to them. They were forced to acknowledge that my performance at the Cirque-Olympique was new and extraordinary, but attributed it to causes, some more strange than others; all the while insisting that the equestrian talent of the rider did not go for nothing in the expertness of the horse. According to some, I was a second Carter, accustoming my horses to obedience by depriving them of sleep and food; according to others, I bound their legs with cords, and thus held them suspended to prepare them for a kind of puppet-show; some were not far from believing that I fascinated them by the power of my looks. Finally, a certain portion of the public, seeing these animals perform in time to the sound of the charming music of one of my friends, M. Paul Cuzent, insisted seriously that they undoubtedly possessed, in a very great degree, the instinct of melody, and that they would stop short with the clarionets and trombones. So, the sound of the music was more powerful over my horse than I was myself! The animal obeyed a do or a sol nicely touched; but my legs and hands went for nothing in their effects. Would it be believed that such nonsense was uttered by people that passed for riders? I can comprehend their not having understood my means at first, since my method was new; but before judging it in so strange a manner, they ought, at least, it seems to me, to have sought to understand it.

I had found the round of ordinary feats of horsemanship too limited, since it was sufficient to execute one movement well to immediately practise the others with the same facility. So, it was proved to me that the rider who passed with precision along a straight line sideways (de deux pistes) at a walk, trot and gallop, could go in the same way with the head or the croup to the wall, with the shoulder in, perform the ordinary or reversed volts, the changes and counterchanges of hands, etc., etc. As to the piaffer, it was, as I have said, nature alone that settled this. This long and fastidious performance had no other variations than the different titles of the movements, since it was sufficient to vanquish one difficulty to be able to surmount all the others. I then created new figures of the manège, the execution of which rendered necessary more suppleness, more ensemble, more finish in the education of the horse. This was easy to me with my system; and to convince my adversaries that there was neither magic nor mystery in my performance at the Cirque, I am going to explain by what processes purely equestrian, and even without having recourse to piliers, cavessons or horse-whips, I have brought my horses to execute the sixteen figures of the manège that appear so extraordinary.

1. Instantaneous flexion and support in the air of either one of the fore legs, while the other three legs remain fixed to the ground.

The means of making the horse raise one of his fore legs is very simple, as soon as the animal is perfectly supple and rassemblé. To make him raise, for example, the right leg, it is sufficient to incline his head slightly to the right, while making the weight of his body fall upon the left side. The rider's legs will be sustained firmly (the left a little more than the right), that the effect of the hand which brings the head to the right should not react upon the weight, and that the forces which serve to fasten to the ground the over-weighted part may give the horse's right leg enough action to make it rise from the ground. By a repetition of this exercise a few times, you will succeed in keeping this leg in the air as long a time as you wish.

2. Mobility of the haunches, the horse resting on his fore legs, while his hind legs balance themselves alternately the one over the other; when the hind leg which is raised from left to right is moved, and is placed on the ground to become pivot in its turn, the other to be instantly raised and to execute the same movement.

The simple mobility of the haunches is one of the exercises that I have pointed out for the elementary education of the horse. We can complicate this performance by multiplying the alternate contact of the legs, until we succeed in easily carrying the horse's croup, one leg over the other, in such a way that the movement from left to right and from right to left cannot exceed one step. This exercise is good to give great nicety of touch to the rider, and to prepare the horse to respond to the lightest effects.

3. Passing instantly from the slow piaffer to the precipitate piaffer, and vice versâ.

After having brought the horse to display great mobility of the legs, we ought to regulate the movement of them. It is by the slow and alternated pressure of his legs that the rider will obtain the slow piaffer. He will make it precipitate by multiplying the contact. Both these piaffers can be obtained from all horses; but as this is among the great difficulties, perfect tact is indispensable.

4. To back with an equal elevation of the transverse legs, which leave the ground and are placed again on it at the same time, the horse executing the movement with as much freedom and facility as if he were going forward, and without apparent aid from the rider.

Backing is not new, but it certainly is new upon the conditions that I lay down. It is only by the aid of a complete suppling and ramener that we succeed in so suspending the horse's body that the distribution of the weight is perfectly regular and the extremities acquire energy and activity alike. This movement then becomes as easy and graceful as it is painful and devoid of elegance when it is changed into acculement.[T]

The suppling, and having got the horse in hand, make this movement easy. When he no longer presents any resistance, he appreciates the lightest effects of the rider, intended in this case to displace only the least possible quantity of forces and weight necessary to set in motion the opposite extremities. By repeating this exercise, it will in a little while be rendered familiar to the horse. The finish of the mechanism will soon give the finish of intelligence.

6. Trot with a sustained extension; the horse, after having raised his legs, carries them forward, sustaining them an instant in the air before replacing them on the ground.

The processes that form the basis of my method reproduce themselves in each simple movement, and with still more reason in the complicated ones. If equilibrium is only obtained by lightness, in return there is no lightness without equilibrium; it is by the union of these two conditions that the horse will acquire the facility of extending his trot to the farthest possible limits, and will completely change his original gait.

7. Serpentine trot, the horse turning to the right and to the left, to return nearly to his starting point, after having made five or six steps in each direction.

This movement will present no difficulty if we keep the horse in hand while executing the flexions of the neck at the walk and trot; you can readily see that such a performance is impossible without this condition. The leg opposite to the side towards which the neck turns ought always to be pressed.

8. Instant halt by the aid of the spurs, the horse being at a gallop.

When the horse, being perfectly suppled, will properly bear the attaques and the rassembler, he will be fit to execute the halt upon the above conditions. In the application of this we will start with a slow gallop, in order to go on successively to the greatest speed. The legs preceding the hand, will bring the horse's hind legs under the middle of his body, then a prompt effect of the hand, by fixing them in this position, will immediately stop the bound. By this means we spare the horse's organization, which can thus be always kept free from blemish.

9. Continued mobility or pawing, while stationary, of one of the horse's fore legs; the horse, at the rider's will, executing the movement by which he, of his own accord, often manifests his impatience.

This movement will be obtained by the same process that serves to keep the horse's leg in the air. In the latter case, the rider's legs must impress a continued support, in order that the force which holds the horse's leg raised keep up its effect; while, for the movement now in question, we must renew the action by a quantity of slight pressures, in order to cause the motion of the leg held up in the air. This extremity of the horse will soon acquire a movement subordinate to that of the rider's legs, and if the time is well seized, it will seem, so to say, that we make the animal move by the aid of mechanical means.

10. To trot backwards, the horse preserving the same cadence and the same step as in the trot forwards.

The first condition, in order to obtain the trot backwards, is to keep the horse in a perfect cadence and as rassemblé as possible. The second is all in the proceedings of the rider. He ought to seek insensibly by the combined effects to make the forces of the fore-hand exceed those of the hind-parts, without affecting the harmony of the movement. Thus we see that by the rassembler we will successively obtain the piaffer stationary, and the piaffer backwards, even without the aid of the reins.

11. To gallop backwards, the time being the same as in the ordinary gallop; but the fore legs once raised, in place of coming to the ground, are carried backwards, that the hind-parts may execute the same backward movement as soon as the fore-feet are placed on the ground.

The principle is the same as for the preceding performance; with a perfect rassembler, the hind legs will find themselves so brought under the centre, that by raising the fore-hand, the movement of the hocks can only be an upward one. This performance, though easily executed with a powerful horse, ought not to be attempted with one not possessing this quality.

12. Changing feet every step, each time of the gallop being done on a different leg.

In order to practise this difficult performance, the horse ought to be accustomed to execute perfectly, and as frequently as possible, changing feet at the touch. Before attempting these changes of feet every step, we ought to have brought him to execute this movement at every other step. Everything depends upon his aptness, and above all, on the intelligence of the rider; with this latter quality, there is no obstacle that is not to be surmounted. To execute this performance with the desirable degree of precision, the horse should remain light, and preserve the same degree of action; the rider, on his part, should also avoid roughly inclining the horse's fore-hand to one side or the other.

13. Ordinary pirouettes on three legs, the fore leg on the side towards which we are turning: remaining in the air during the whole time of the movement.

Ordinary pirouettes should be familiar to a horse broken after my method, and I have above shown the means to make him hold up one of his fore feet. If these two movements are well executed separately, it will be easy to connect them in a single performance. After having disposed the horse for the pirouette, we will prepare the mass in such a way as to raise the fore leg; this once in the air, we will throw the weight on the part opposite to the side towards which we wish to turn, by bearing upon this part with the hand and leg. The leg of the rider placed on the converging side, will only act daring this time so as to carry the forces forward, in order to prevent the hand producing a retrograde effect.

14. To back with a halt at each step, the right leg of the horse remaining in front motionless and held out at the full distance that the left leg has passed over, and vice versâ.

This movement depends upon the nicety of touch of the rider, as it results from an effect of forces impossible to specify. Though this performance is not very graceful, the experienced rider will do well to often practise it, in order to learn to modify the effects of forces, and acquire all the niceties of his art in perfection.

15. Regular piaffer with an instant halt on three legs, the fourth remaining in the air.

Here, also, as for the ordinary pirouettes upon three legs, it is by exercising the piaffer and the flexion of one leg separately, that we will succeed in uniting the two movements in one. We will interrupt the piaffer by arresting the contraction of three of the legs so as to leave it in one only. It is sufficient, then, in order to accustom the horse to this performance, to stop him while he is piaffing, by forcing him to contract one of his legs.

16. Change of feet every time at equal intervals, the horse remaining in the same place.

This movement is obtained by the same proceedings as are employed for changing feet every time while advancing; only it is much more complicated, since we must give an exact impulsion sufficiently strong to determine the movement of the legs without the body advancing. This movement consequently demands a great deal of tact on the rider's part, and cannot be practised except on a perfectly broken horse, but broken as I understand it.

Such is the vocabulary of the new figures of the manège that I have created, and so often executed before the public. As you see, this performance, which appeared so extraordinary that people would not believe it belonged to equestrianism, becomes very simple and comprehensible as soon as you have studied the principles of my method. There is not one of these movements in which is not discovered the application of the precepts I have developed in this book.

But, I repeat, if I have enriched equitation with a new and interesting work, I do not pretend to have attained the farthest limits of the art; and one may come after me, who, if he will study my system and practise it with intelligence, will be able to pass me on the course, and add something yet to the results I have obtained.

CHAPTER X.

A. As it is upon the lower jaw that the effects of the rider's hand are first felt, these will be null or incomplete if the jaw is contracted or closed against the upper one. Besides, as in this case the displacing of the horse's body is only obtained with difficulty, the movements resulting therefrom will also be painful.

Q. Is it enough that the horse champ his bit for the flexion of his jaw to leave nothing more to wish for?

A. No, it is also necessary that the horse let go of the bit—that is to say, that he should separate (at our will) his jaws as much as possible.

Q. Can all horses have this mobility of jaw?

A. All without exception, if we follow the gradation pointed out, and if the rider does not allow himself to be deceived by the flexion of the neck. Useful as this is, it would be insufficient without the play of the jaw.

Q. In the direct flexion of the jaw, ought we to give a tension to the curb-reins and those of the snaffle at the same time?

A. No, we must make the snaffle precede (the hand being placed as indicated in Plate No. III.), until the head and neck are lowered; afterwards the pressure of the bit, in time with the snaffle, will promptly make the jaws open.

Q. Ought we often to repeat this exercise?

A. It should be continued until the jaws separate by a light pressure of the bit or snaffle.

Q. Why is the stiffness of the neck so powerful an obstacle to the education of the horse?

A. Because it absorbs to its profit the force which the rider seeks in vain to transmit throughout the whole mass.

Q. Can the haunches be suppled separately?

A. Certainly they can; and this exercise is comprised in what is called stationary exercise.

Q. What is its useful object?

A. To prevent the bad effects resulting from the instinctive forces of the horse, and to make him appreciate the forces transmitted by the rider without opposing them.

Q. Can the horse execute a movement without a shifting of weight?

A. It is impossible. We must first seek to make the horse take a position which causes such a variation in his equilibrium that the movement may be a natural consequence of it.

Q. What do you understand by position?

A. An arrangement of the head, neck and body, previously disposed according to the movements of the horse.

Q. In what consists the ramener?

A. In the perpendicular position of the head, and the lightness that accompanies it.

Q. What is the distribution of the forces and weight in the ramener?

A. The forces and weight are equally distributed through all the mass.

Q. How do we address the intelligence of the horse?

A. By the position, because it is that which makes the horse know the rider's intentions.

Q. Why is it necessary that in the backward movements of the horse, the legs of the rider precede the hand?

A. Because we must displace the points of support before placing upon them the mass that they must sustain.

Q. Is it the rider that determines his horse?

A. No. The rider gives action and position, which are the language; the horse answers this demand by the change of pace or direction that the rider had intended.

Q. Is it to the rider or to the horse that we ought to impute the fault of bad execution?

A. To the rider, and always to the rider. As it depends upon him to supple and place the horse in the way of the movement, and as with these two conditions faithfully fulfilled, everything becomes regular, it is then to the rider that the merit or blame ought to belong.

Q. What kind of bit is suitable for a horse?

A. An easy bit.

Q. Why is an easy bit necessary for all horses, whatever may be their resistance?

A. Because the effect of a severe bit is to constrain and surprise a horse, while it ought to prevent him from doing wrong and enable him to do well. Now, we cannot obtain these results except by the aid of an easy bit, and above all, of a skillful hand; for the bit is the hand, and a good hand is the whole of the rider.

Q. Are there any other inconveniences connected with the instruments of torture called severe bits?

A. Certainly there are, for the horse soon learns to avoid the painful infliction of them by forcing the rider's legs, the power of which can never be equal to that of this barbarous bit. He succeeds in this by yielding with his body, and resisting with his neck and jaw, which misses altogether the aim proposed.

Q. How is it that nearly all the horsemen of renown have invented a particular kind of bit?

A. Because being wanting in personal science, they sought to replace their own insufficiency by aids or strange machines.

Q. Can the horse, perfectly in hand, defend himself?

A. No; for the just distribution of weight that this position gives supposes a great regularity of movement, and it would be necessary to overturn this order that any act of rebellion on the part of the horse should take place.

Q. What is the use of the snaffle?

A. The snaffle serves to combat the opposing forces (lateral) of the neck, to make the head precede in all the changes of direction, while the horse is not yet familiarized with the effects of the bit; it serves also to arrange the head and neck in a perfectly straight line.

Q. In order to obtain the ramener, should we make the legs precede the hand or the hand the legs?

A. The hands ought to precede until they have produced the effect of giving great suppleness to the neck (this ought to be practised in the stationary exercises); then come the legs in their turn to combine the hind and fore-parts in the movement. The continual lightness of the horse at all paces will be the result of it.

Q. Ought the legs and the hands to aid one another or act separately?

A. One of these extremities ought always to have the other for auxiliary.

Q. Ought we to leave the horse a long time at the same pace in order to develop his powers?

A. It is useless, since the regularity of movements results from the regularity of the positions; the horse that makes fifty steps at a trot regularly is much further advanced in his education than if he made a thousand in a bad position. We must then attend to his position, that is to say, his lightness.

Q. In what proportions ought we to use the force of the horse?

A. This cannot be defined, since these forces vary in different subjects; but we should be sparing of them, and not expend them without circumspection, particularly during the course of his education. It is on this account that we must, so to say, create for them a reservoir that the horse may not absorb them uselessly, and that the rider may make a profitable and more lasting use of them.

Q. What good will there result to the horse from this judicious employment of his forces?

A. As we will only make use of forces useful for certain movements, fatigue or exhaustion can only result from the length of time during which the animal will remain at an accelerated pace, and will not be the effect of an excessive muscular contraction which would preserve its intensity, even at a moderate pace.

Q. When should we first undertake to make the horse back?

A. After the suppling of the neck and haunches.

Q. Why should the suppling of the haunches precede that of the loins (the reculer)?

A. To keep the horse more easily in a straight line and to render the flowing back and forward of the weight more easy.

Q. Ought these first retrograde movements of the horse to be prolonged during the first lessons?

A. No. As their only object is to annul the instinctive forces of the horse, we must wait till he is perfectly in hand to obtain a backward movement, a true reculer.

Q. What constitutes a true reculer?

A. The lightness of the horse (head perpendicular), the exact balance of his body, and the elevation to the same height of the legs diagonally.

Q. At what distance ought the spur to be placed from the horse's flanks before the attaque commences?

A. The rowel should not be farther than two inches from the horse's flanks.

Q. How ought the attaques to be practised?

A. They ought to reach the flanks by a movement like the stroke of a lancet, and be taken away as quickly.

Q. Are there circumstances where the attaque ought to be practised without the aid of the hand?

A. Never; since its only object should be to give the impulsion which serves for the hand to contain (renfermer) the horse.

Q. Is it the attaques themselves that chastise the horse?

A. No. The chastisement is in the contained position that the attaques and the hand make the horse assume. As the latter then finds himself in a position where it is impossible to make use of any of his forces, the chastisement has all its efficiency.

Q. In what consists the difference between the attaques practised after the old principles, and those which the new method prescribed?

A. Our predecessors (that we should venerate) practised spurring in order to throw the horse out of himself; the new method makes use of it to contain him; that is, to give him that first position which is the mother of all the others.

Q. What are the functions of the legs during the attaques?

A. The legs ought to remain adherent to the horse's flanks and in no respect to partake of the movements of the feet.

Q. At what moment ought we to commence the attaques?

A. When the horse supports peaceably a strong pressure of the legs without getting out of hand.

Q. Why does a horse, perfectly in hand, bear the spur without becoming excited, and even without sudden movement?

A. Because the skillful hand of the rider, having prevented all displacings of the head, never lets the forces escape outwards; it concentrates them by fixing them. The equal struggle of the forces, or if you prefer it, their ensemble, sufficiently explains the apparent dullness of the horse in this case.

Q. Is it not to be feared that the horse may become insensible to the legs and lose all that activity necessary for accelerated movements?

A. Although this is the opinion of nearly all the people who talk of this method without understanding it, there is nothing in it. Since all these means serve only to keep the horse in the most perfect equilibrium, promptness of movement ought necessarily to be the result of it, and, consequently, the horse will be disposed to respond to the progressive contact of the legs, when the hand does not oppose it.

Q. How can we judge whether an attaque is regular?

A. When, far from making the horse get out of hand, it makes him come into it.

Q. How ought the hand to be supported at the moments of resistance on the part of the horse?

A. The hand ought to stop, fix itself, and only be drawn sufficiently towards the body to give the reins a three-quarter tension. In the contrary case, we must wait till the horse bears upon the hand to present this insurmountable barrier to him.

Q. What would be the inconvenience of increasing the pressure of the bit by drawing the hand towards the body in order to slacken the horse in his paces by getting him in hand?

A. It would not produce an effect upon a particular part, but would act generally upon all the forces, in displacing the weight instead of annulling the force of impulsion. We should not wish to incline to one side what we cannot stop.

Q. In what case ought we to make use of the cavesson, and what is its use?

A. We should make use of it when the faulty construction of the horse leads him to defend himself, when only simple movements are demanded of him. It is also useful to use the cavesson with restive horses, as its object is to act upon the moral, while the rider acts upon the physical.

Q. How ought we to make use of the cavesson?

A. At first, the longe of the cavesson should be held at from fifteen or twenty inches from the horse's head, held out and supported with a stiff wrist. We must watch the proper times to diminish or increase the bearing of the cavesson upon the horse's nose, so as to use it as an aid. All viciousness that leads him to act badly is to be repressed by little jerks, which should be given at the very moment of defense. As soon as the rider's movements begin to be appreciated by the horse, the longe of the cavesson ought no longer to act; at the end of a few days the horse will only need the bit, to which he will respond without hesitation.

Q. In what case is the rider less intelligent than the horse?

A. When the latter subjects him to his caprices, and does what he wishes with him.

Q. Are the defenses of the horse physical or moral?

A. At first they are physical, but afterwards become moral; the rider ought then to seek out the causes that produce them, and endeavor, by a preparatory exercise, to re-establish the correct equilibrium that a bad natural formation prevented.

Q. Can the naturally well-balanced horse defend himself?

A. It would be as difficult for a subject uniting all that constitutes a good horse to give himself up to disorderly movements, as it is impossible for the one that has not received the like gifts from nature, to have regular movements, if art did not lend him its aid.

Q. What do you mean by rassembler?

A. The reunion of forces at the centre of gravity.

Q. Can we rassembler the horse that does not contain himself under the attaques?

A. This is altogether impossible; the legs would be insufficient to counterbalance the effects of the hand.

Q. At what time ought we to rassembler the horse?

A. When the ramener is complete.

Q. Of what service is the rassembler?

A. To obtain without difficulty everything of a complicated nature in horsemanship.

Q. In what does the piaffer consist?

A. In the graceful position of the body and the harmonized precision of movement of the legs and feet.

Q. Is there more than one kind of piaffer?

A. Two; the slow and the precipitate.

Q. Which is to be preferred of these two?

A. The slow piaffer, since it is only when this is obtained that the equilibrium is perfect.

Q. Ought we to make a horse piaffe who will not bear the rassembler?

A. No; for that would be to step out of the logical gradation that alone can give certain results. Besides, the horse that has not been brought forward by this chain of principles would only execute with trouble and ungracefully what he ought to accomplish with pleasure and nobly.

Q. Are all riders alike suited to conquer all the difficulties and seize all the effects of touch?

A. As in horsemanship, intelligence is the starting point for obtaining every result, everything is subordinate to this innate disposition; but every rider will have the power to break his horse to an extent commensurate with his own abilities to instruct.

CONCLUSION.

Everybody complains now-a-days of the degeneration of our breeds of horses. Apprehensive too late of a state of things which threatens even the national independence,[U] patriotic spirits are seeking to go back to the source of the evil, and are arranging divers systems for remedying it as soon as possible. Among the causes which have contributed the most to the loss of our old breeds, they forget, it seems to me, to mention the decline of horsemanship, nor do they consider that the revival of this art is indispensable in bringing about the regeneration of the horse.

The difficulties of horsemanship have long been the same, but formerly constant practice, if not taste, kept it up; these stimulants exist no longer. Fifty years ago, every man of rank was expected to be able to handle a horse with skill, and break one if necessary. This study was an indispensable part of the education of young people of family; and as it obliged them to devote two or three years to the rough exercises of the manège, in the end they all became horsemen, some by taste, the rest by habit. These habits once acquired were preserved throughout life; they then felt the necessity of possessing good horses, and men of fortune spared nothing in getting them. The sale of fine horses thus became easy; all gained by it, the breeder as well as the horse. It is not so now; the aristocracy of fortune, succeeding to that of birth, is very willing to possess the advantages of the latter, but would dispense with the onerous obligations which appertained to an elevated rank. The desire of showing off in public places, or motives still more frivolous, sometimes lead gentlemen of our times to commence the study of horsemanship, but, soon wearied of a work without satisfactory results, they find only a monotonous fatigue where they sought a pleasure, and are satisfied they know enough as soon as they can stick passably well in the saddle. So insufficient a knowledge of horsemanship, as dangerous as it is thoughtless, must necessarily occasion sad accidents. They then become disgusted with horsemanship and horses, and as nothing obliges them to continue the exercise, they give it up nearly altogether, and so much the more easily as they naturally care very little about the breeds of horses and their perfection. We must then, as a preliminary measure in the improvement of horses, raise up horsemanship from the low state into which it has fallen. The government can undoubtedly do much here; but it is for the masters of the art to supply, if necessary, what it leaves undone. Let them render attractive and to the purpose studies which have hitherto been too monotonous and often barren; let rational and true principles make the scholar see a real progress, that each of his efforts brings a success with it; and we will soon see young persons of fortune become passionately fond of an exercise which has been rendered as interesting to them as it is noble, and discover, with their love for horses, a lively solicitude for all that concerns their qualities and education.

But horsemen can aim at still more brilliant results. If they succeed in rendering easy the education of common horses, they will make the study of horsemanship popular among the masses; they will put within reach of moderate fortunes, so numerous in our land of equality, the practice of an art that has hitherto been confined to the rich. Such has been the aim of the labors of my whole life. It is in the hope of attaining this end that I give to the public the fruit of my long researches.

But I should say, however, that if I was upheld by the hope of being one day useful to my country, it was the army above all that occupied my thoughts. Though counting many skillful horsemen in its ranks, the system they are made to follow, impotent in my eyes, is the true cause of the equestrian inferiority of so many, as well as of their horses being so awkward and badly broken. I might add that to the same motive is to be attributed the little taste for horsemanship felt by the officers and soldiers. How can it be otherwise? The low price allowed by government for horses of remount, causes few horses of good shape to be met with in the army, and it is only of these that the education is easy. The officers themselves, mounted upon a very common sort of horses, strive in vain to render them docile and agreeable. After two or three years of fatiguing exercise, they end by gaining a mechanical obedience, but the same resistances and the same faults of construction are perpetually recurring. Disgusted by difficulties that appear insurmountable, they trouble themselves no more about horses and horsemanship than the demands of the service actually require.

Yet it is indispensable that a cavalry officer be always master of his horse, so much so as to be able, so to say, to communicate his own thoughts to him; the uniformity of man[oe]uvres, the necessities of command, the perils of the battle-field, all demand it imperatively. The life of the rider, every one knows, often depends upon the good or bad disposition of his steed; in the same way the loss or the gain of a battle often hangs on the degree of precision in man[oe]uvring a squadron. My method will give military men a taste for horsemanship, a taste which is indispensable in the profession they practise. The nature of officers' horses, considered as so defective, is exactly the one upon which the most satisfactory results may be obtained. These animals generally possess a certain degree of energy, and as soon as we know how rightly to use their powers by remedying the physical faults that paralyze them, we will be astonished at the resources they will exhibit. The rider fashioning the steed by degrees will regard him as the work of his hand, will become sincerely attached to him, and will find as much charm in horsemanship as he previously felt ennui and disgust. My principles are simple, easy in their application, and within the reach of every mind. They can everywhere make (what is now so rare) skillful horsemen. I am sure that if my method is adopted and well understood in the army, where the daily exercise of the horse is a necessary duty, we will see equestrian capacities spring up among the officers and sub-officers by thousands. There is not one among them who, with an hour a day of study would not soon be able to give any horse in less than three months the following qualities and education:

1. General suppling.

2. Perfect lightness.

3. Graceful position.

4. A steady walk.

5. Trot steady, measured, extended.

6. Backing as easily and freely as going forward.

7. Gallop easy with either foot, and change of foot by the touch.

8. Easy and regular movement of the haunches, comprising ordinary and reversed pirouettes.

9. Leaping the ditch and the bar.

10. Piaffer.

11. Halt from the gallop, by the aid of first, the pressure of the legs, and then a light support of the hand. I ask all conscientious men: have they seen many horsemen of renown obtain similar results in so short a time?

The education of the men's horses, being less complicated than that of those intended for officers, would on that account be more rapid. The principal things will be the supplings and the backing, followed by the walk, the trot and the gallop, while keeping the horse perfectly in hand. The colonels will soon appreciate the excellent results of this exercise, in consequence of the precision with which all the movements are made. The important flexions of the fore-hand can be executed without leaving the stables, each rider turning his horse around in the stall. It is not for me to point out to the colonels of regiments the exact way of putting my method in practice; it is enough for me to lay down my principles and to explain them. The instructors will themselves supply the details of application too long to enumerate here.

I must again repeat, this book is the fruit of twenty years of observation constantly verified by practice. A long and painful work without doubt, but what compensation I have found in the results I have been happy enough to obtain. In order to let the public judge of the importance of my discoveries, it is sufficient here to give their nomenclature, and I present these processes as new ones, because I can conscientiously say that they never were practised before me. I have added then successively to the manual of the horseman the following principles and innovations:

1. New means of obtaining a good seat.

2. Means of making the horse come to the man, and rendering him steady to mount.

3. Distinction between the instinctive forces of the horse and the communicated forces.

4. Explanation of the influence of a bad formation upon the horse's resistances.

5. Effect of bad formations on the neck and croup, the principal focuses of resistance.

6. Means of remedying the faults, or supplings of the two extremities, and the whole of the horse's body.

7. Annihilation of the instinctive forces of the horse, in order to substitute for them forces transmitted by the rider, and to give ease and beauty of motion to the ungraceful animal.

8. Equality of sensibility of mouth in all horses; adoption of a uniform bit.

9. Equality of sensibility of flanks in all horses; means of accustoming them all to bear the spur alike.

10. All horses can place their heads in the position of ramener and acquire the same lightness.

11. Means of bringing the centre of gravity in a badly-formed horse to the place it occupies in a well-formed one.

12. The rider disposes his horse for a moment, but he does not determine the movement.

13. Why sound horses often are faulty in their paces. Means of remedying this in a few lessons.

14. For changes of direction, use of the leg opposite to the side towards which we turn, so that it may precede the other one.

15. In all backward movements of the horse the rider's legs ought to precede the hands.

16. Distinction between the reculer and the acculement; the good effect of the former in the horse's education; the bad effect of the latter.

17. The use of the spurs as a means of education.

18. All horses can piaffer; means of rendering this movement slow or precipitate.

19. Definition of the true rassembler; means of obtaining it; of its usefulness to produce grace and regularity in complicated movements.

20. Means of bringing all horses to step out freely at a trot.

21. Rational means of putting a horse at a gallop.

22. Halt at a gallop, the legs or the spur preceding the hand.

23. Force continued in proportion to the forces of the horse; the rider should never yield until after having annulled the horse's resistances.

24. Education of the horse in parts, or means of exercising his forces separately.

25. Complete education of horses of ordinary formation in less than three months.

26. Sixteen new figures of the manège proper for giving the finishing touch to the horse's education, and for perfecting the rider's touch.

It is understood that all the details of application appertaining to these innovations are new also, and likewise belong to me.

THE END.