Part 6 (1/2)
The rider's employment of force, when properly applied, has a moral effect also on the horse, that accelerates the results. If the impulse given by the legs finds in the hand the energy and _apropos_ necessary to regulate its effects, the pain the animal sustains will be always proportioned to his resistances, and his instinct will soon make him understand how he can diminish, and even avoid altogether this constraint, by promptly yielding to what we demand of him. He will hasten then to submit, and will even antic.i.p.ate our desires. But, I repeat, it is only by means of tact and delicate management that we will gain this important point. If the legs give too vigorous an impulse, the horse will quickly overcome the motion of the hands, and resume with his natural position all the advantages it gives him to foil the efforts of the rider. If, on the contrary, the hand presents too great a resistance, the horse will soon overcome the legs, and find a means of defending himself by backing. Yet these difficulties must not be allowed to frighten us; they were only serious ones when no rational principle gave the means of surmounting them. The application of my method will enable ordinary hors.e.m.e.n to obtain results that otherwise could be obtained only by the most favored equestrian organizations.
When the animal becomes accustomed by means of the spur to such oppositions, it will become easy enough to combat with the spur all the resistances that may afterwards manifest themselves. Since the resistances are always caused by moving the croup sideways, or getting it too far back, the spur, by immediately bringing the hind legs towards the centre of the body, prevents the support of the hocks, which were able to oppose the proper harmony of forces, and prevent the right distribution of the weight.
This is the means I always employ to make the horse pa.s.s from a swift gallop to a halt, without straining his hocks, or injuring any of the joints of his hind-parts. In fact, since it is the hocks which propel the ma.s.s forward, it suffices to destroy their motion to stop the bound.
The spur, by instantly bringing the hind legs under the horse's belly, destroys their power from the moment the hand comes in the nick of time to fix them in that position. Then the haunches bend, the croup is lowered; the weight and forces arrange themselves in the order most favorable to the free and combined play of each part, and the violence of the shock, infinitely decomposed, is scarce perceptible to either horse or rider.
If, on the contrary, we stop the horse by making the hand move first, the hocks remain far in the rear of the plumb-line; the shock is violent, painful for the animal, and especially injurious to his physical organization. Horses that are thus stopped, set themselves against the bit, extending their neck, and require an arm of iron and a most violent opposing force. Such is the custom of the Arabs, for example, in halting suddenly their horses, by making use of murderous bits that break the bars of their horses' mouths. Thus, notwithstanding the wonderful powers with which nature has gifted them, are these excellent animals injured. The use of the spur must not be commenced till by gathering him we get the horse well in hand; then the first touch of the spur should be made felt. We will continue to make use of it, at long intervals, until the horse, after his bound forward, presents no resistance to the hand, and avoids the pressure of the bit, by bringing in his chin towards his chest, of his own accord. This submission once obtained, we can undertake the use of the spurs with oppositions, but we must be careful to discontinue them when the horse is in hand. This means has the double advantage of acting morally and physically. The first attacks will be made with a single spur, and by bearing on the opposite rein; these transverse oppositions will have a better effect and give more prompt results. When the horse begins to contain himself, the two spurs being used separately, we can make them felt together and with an equal gradation.[Q]
[Q] I would never have thought that this means, which serves as a corrective to the processes used by all hors.e.m.e.n, would have aroused the sensibility of some amateurs. These latter have preferred to be affected by exaggerated or erroneous reports, rather than satisfy themselves by observation, that this pretended cruelty is in fact the most innocent thing in the world. Must we not teach the horse to respond to the spur as well as to the legs and the hand? Is it not by this spurring, judiciously applied, that we bring in at will the hind legs more or less near the centre of gravity? Is not this the only way of increasing or diminis.h.i.+ng the leverage of the hocks, whether for extending or raising them in motion, or for the purpose of halting?
To the work, then, cavaliers! If you will follow my principles, I can promise you that your purse will be less often emptied into the hands of horse-dealers, and that you will render the meanest of your hacks agreeable. You will charm our breeders of horses, who will attribute to their efforts of regeneration that elegance and grace that your art alone could have given to your chargers.
_Lowering the hand._--The lowering the hand consists in confirming the horse in all his lightness--that is, in making him preserve his equilibrium without the aid of the reins. The suppleness given to all parts of the horse, the just oppositions of hands and legs, lead him to keep himself in the best possible position. To find out exactly whether we are obtaining this result, we must have recourse to frequent lowering of the hand. It is done in this way: After having slipped the right hand to the buckle, and having a.s.sured yourself that the reins are even, you will let go of them with the left hand, and lower the right slowly to the pommel of the saddle. To do this regularly, the horse must neither increase nor diminish the speed of his pace, and his head and neck continue to preserve their proper position. The first few times that the horse is thus given up to himself, he will perhaps only take a few steps while keeping in position, and at the same rate of speed; the rider ought then to make his legs felt first, and the hand afterwards, to bring him into his previous position. The frequent repet.i.tion of this lowering of the hand, after a complete placing of the horse's head in a perpendicular position, will give him a most exquisite mouth, and the rider a still greater delicacy of touch. The means of guiding employed by the latter will immediately be answered by the horse, if his forces have been previously disposed in a perfectly harmonious state.
The lowerings of the hand ought to be practised first at a walk, then at a trot, afterwards at a gallop. This semblance of liberty gives such confidence to the horse that he gives up without knowing it; he becomes our submissive slave, while supposing that he is preserving an entire independence.
_Of gathering the horse, or ra.s.sembler._--The preceding exercise will render easy to the rider that important part of horsemans.h.i.+p called _ra.s.sembler_. This has been a great deal talked about by people, as they have talked about Providence, and all the mysteries that are impenetrable to human perception. If it were allowable for us to compare small things to great, we might say that the more or less absurd theories that have been put forward upon the subject of divine power have not, fortunately, hindered in any way the unchangeable march of nature; but with regard to the progress of horsemans.h.i.+p, the case is not the same as to what has been said and written on the subject of the _ra.s.sembler_. The false principles propagated on this subject have made the horse the plaything and the victim of the rider's ignorance.
I proclaim it, the gathering a horse has never been understood or defined before me, for it cannot be perfectly executed without the regular application of the principles that I have developed for the first time. You will be convinced of this truth when you know that the _ra.s.sembler_ demands:
1. The suppling, partial and general, of the neck and haunches.
2. The perfect position that results from this suppling.
3. The entire absorption of the forces of the horse by the rider.
Now, as the means of obtaining these different results have never been pointed out in any treatise on horsemans.h.i.+p, am I not justified in saying that the true _ra.s.sembler_ has never been practised until now? It is, nevertheless, one of the indispensable conditions of the horse's education; consequently I think I am right in saying that before my method, horses of defective formation have never been properly broken.
How is the _ra.s.sembler_ defined in the schools of horsemans.h.i.+p? _You gather your horse by raising the hand and closing the legs._ I ask, what good can this movement of the rider do upon an animal badly formed, contracted, and that remains under the influence of all the evil propensities of its nature? This mechanical support of the hands and legs, far from preparing the horse for obedience, will only make him redouble his means of resistance, since, while giving him notice that we are about to demand a movement on his part, we remain unable to dispose his forces in such a way as to force him to it.
The real _ra.s.sembler_ consists in collecting the forces of the horse in his centre in order to ease his extremities, and give them up completely to the disposition of the rider. The animal thus finds himself transformed into a kind of balance, of which the rider is the centre-piece. The least touch upon one or other of the extremities, which represent the scales, will immediately send them in the direction we wish. The rider will know that his horse is completely gathered when he feels him ready, as it were, to rise from all four of his legs. The proper position first, and then the use of the spurs, will make this beautiful execution of the gathering easy to both horse and rider; and what splendor, grace and majesty it gives the animal! If we have been obliged at first to use the spurs in pus.h.i.+ng this concentration of forces to its farthest limits, the legs will afterwards be sufficient to obtain the gathering necessary for the precision and elevation required in all complicated movements.
Need I recommend discretion in your demands? I think not. If the rider, having reached this stage of his horse's education, cannot comprehend and seize that fineness of touch, that delicacy of process indispensable to the right application of my principles, it will prove him devoid of every feeling of a horseman; nothing I can say can remedy this imperfection of his nature.
CHAPTER VII.
OF THE EMPLOYMENT OF THE FORCES OF THE HORSE BY THE RIDER.
(_Continuation._)
_Of the gallop._--I have said that, until now, the greater part of the resources of horsemans.h.i.+p have not been understood, and had I need of another proof to support my opinion, I would draw it from the error, the suppositions, the innumerable contradictions that have been heaped together in order to explain so simple a movement as the gallop. What contrary opinions upon the means to employ to make the horse go off with his right foot? It is the support of the rider's right leg which determines the movement, one pretends; it is that of the left leg, says another; it is the equal touch of the two legs, affirms a third; no, some others remark, very seriously, you must let the horse act naturally.
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 t.i.tles 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 horsemans.h.i.+p. 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 ma.s.ses 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 ma.s.s of hors.e.m.e.n 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.