Part 6 (2/2)
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 _ra.s.semble_; 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.
Pa.s.sing 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 hors.e.m.e.n 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 const.i.tuted, 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 b.u.t.tocks 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 pus.h.i.+ng bravado to the point of wis.h.i.+ng 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, hors.e.m.e.n 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?
[R] ”The _piaffer_ is the horse's raising his legs diagonally, as in the trot, but without advancing or receding.”--_Baucher's_ ”_Dictionnaire d'Equitation._”
This opinion is undoubtedly convenient for justifying its own ignorance, but it is none the less false. _We can bring all horses to piaffer_, and I will prove that in this particularly, without reforming the work of nature, without deranging the formation of the bones, or that of the muscles of the animal, we can remedy the consequences of its physical imperfections, and change the vicious disposition occasioned by faulty construction. There is no doubt that the horse whose forces and weight are collected in one of his extremities will be unfit to execute the elegant cadence of the _piaffer_. But a graduated exercise, the completion of which is the _ra.s.sembler_, soon allows us to remedy such an inconvenience. We can now reunite all these forces in their true centre of gravity, and the horse that bears the _ra.s.sembler_ perfectly has all the necessary qualifications for the _piaffer_.
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 _ra.s.sembler_ 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 _a 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 _ra.s.semble_, which, of itself, will induce the movement without effort.
CHAPTER VIII.
DIVISION OF THE WORK.
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