Part 11 (1/2)

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 hors.e.m.e.n 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 princ.i.p.al 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 princ.i.p.al 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 subst.i.tute 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.