New Method of Horsemanship Part 11

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.

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 _ra.s.sembler_; 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 _manege_ proper for giving the finis.h.i.+ng 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.