Part 4 (2/2)

When practised after the old erroneous methods, it would have been without success, since the thread of exercises that ought to precede it were unknown. Backing properly differs essentially from that incorrect backward movement which carries the horse to the rear with his croup contracted and his neck stiff; that is, backing away from and avoiding the effect of the reins. Backing correctly supples the horse, and adds grace and precision to his natural motions. The first of the conditions upon which it is to be obtained, is to keep the horse in hand; that is to say, supple, light in the mouth, steady on his legs, and perfectly balanced in all his parts. Thus disposed, the animal will be able with ease to move and elevate equally his fore and hind legs.

It is here that we will be enabled to appreciate the good effects and the indispensable necessity of suppling the neck and haunches. Backing, which at first is tolerably painful to the horse, will always lead him to combat the motions of our hand, by stiffening his neck, and those of our legs, by contracting his croup; these are the instinctive resistances. If we cannot obviate the bad disposition of them, how will we be able to obtain that s.h.i.+fting and re-s.h.i.+fting of weight, which alone ought to make the execution of this movement perfect? If the impulsion which, to back him, ought to come from the fore-parts, should pa.s.s over its proper limits, the movement would become painful, impossible in fact, and occasion, on the part of the animal, sudden, violent movements which are always injurious to his organization.

On the other hand, the displacements[L] of the croup, by destroying the harmony which should exist between the relative forces of fore and hind-parts, would also hinder the proper execution of the backing. The previous exercise to which we have subjected the croup will aid us in keeping it in a straight line with the shoulders, in order to preserve the necessary transferring of the forces and weight.

[L] These displacements of the croup mean sideway displacements, or the horse's croup not being in a line with the shoulders.--TRANSLATOR.

To commence the movement, the rider ought first to a.s.sure himself that the haunches are on a line with the shoulders, and the horse light in hand; then he will slowly close his legs, in order that the action they will communicate to the hind-parts of the horse may make him lift one of his hind legs, and prevent the body from yielding before the neck. It is then that the immediate pressure of the bit, forcing the horse to regain his equilibrium behind, will produce the first part of the backing. As soon as the horse obeys, the rider will instantly give the hand to reward the animal, and not to force the play of his fore-parts. If his croup is displaced, the rider will bring it back by means of his leg, and if necessary, use for this purpose the snaffle-rein on that side.

After having defined what I call the proper backing (_reculer_), I ought to explain what I understand by backing so as to avoid the bit (_l'acculement_). This movement is too painful to the horse, too ungraceful, and too much opposed to the right development of his mechanism, not to have struck any one who has occupied himself at all with horsemans.h.i.+p. We force a horse backwards in this way, whenever we crowd too much his forces and weight upon his hind-parts; by so doing we destroy his equilibrium, and render grace, measure and correctness impossible. Lightness, always lightness! this is the basis, the touchstone of all beautiful execution. With this, all is easy, as much for the horse as the rider. That being the case, it is understood that the difficulty of horsemans.h.i.+p does not consist in the direction to give the horse, but in the position to make him a.s.sume--a position which alone can smooth all obstacles. Indeed, if the horse executes, it is the rider who makes him do so; upon him then rests the responsibility of every false movement.

It will suffice to exercise the horse for eight days (for five minutes each lesson), in backing, to make him execute it with facility. The rider will content himself the first few times with one or two steps to the rear, followed by the combined effect of the legs and hand, increasing in proportion to the progress he makes, until he finds no more difficulty in a backward than in a forward movement.

What an immense step we will then have made in the education of our pupil! At the start, the defective formation of the animal, his natural contractions, the resistances we encountered everywhere, seemed as if they might defy our efforts forever. Without doubt they would have been vain, had we made use of a bad course of proceeding, but the wise system of progression that we have introduced into our work, the destruction of the instinctive forces of the horse, the suppling, the separate subjection of all the rebellious parts, have soon placed in our power the whole of the mechanism to such a degree as to enable us to govern it completely, and to restore that pliability, ease, and harmony of the parts, which their bad arrangement appeared as if it would always prevent. As I shall point out hereafter in cla.s.sing the general division of the labor, it will be seen that eight or ten days will be sufficient to obtain these important results.

Was I not right then in saying that if it is not in my power to change the defective formation of a horse, I can yet prevent the evil effect of his physical defects, so as to render him as fit to do everything with grace and natural ease, as the better formed horse? In suppling the parts of the animal upon which the rider acts directly, in order to govern and guide him, in accustoming them to yield without difficulty or hesitation to the different impressions which are communicated to them, I have, by so doing, destroyed their stiffness and restored the centre of gravity to its true place, namely, to the middle of the body. I have, besides, settled the greatest difficulty of horsemans.h.i.+p: that of subjecting, before everything else, the parts upon which the rider acts directly, in order to prepare for him infallible means of acting upon the horse.

It is only by destroying the instinctive forces, and by suppling the different parts of the horse, that we will obtain this. All the springs of the animal's body are thus yielded up to the discretion of the rider.

But this first advantage will not be enough to make him a complete horseman. The employment of these forces thus abandoned to him, demand, in order to execute the different paces, much study and skill. I will show in the subsequent chapters the rules to be observed. I will conclude this one by a rapid recapitulation of the progression to be followed in the supplings.

_Stationary exercise, the rider on foot. Fore-parts._--

1. Flexions of the jaw to the right and left, using the curb-bit.

2. Direct flexions of the jaw, and depression of the neck.

3. Lateral flexions of the neck with the snaffle-reins and with the curb.

_Stationary exercise, the rider on horseback._--

1. Lateral flexions of the neck with the snaffle-reins, and with the curb-reins.

2. Direct flexions of the head or placing it in a perpendicular position with the snaffle, and with the curb-reins.

_Hind-parts._--

3. Lateral flexions, and moving the croup around the shoulders.

4. Rotation of the shoulders around the haunches.

5. Combining the play of the fore and hind legs of the horse, or backing.

I have placed the rotation of the shoulders around the haunches in the nomenclatere of stationary exercise. But the ordinary pivoting, or _pirouettes_, being a pretty complicated movement, and one difficult for the horse, he should not be completely exercised in it until he has acquired the measured time of the walk, and of the trot, and will easily execute the changes of direction.

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