CONTINUATION OF SUPPLINGS.
_The hind-parts._--In order to guide the horse, the rider acts directly
on two of his parts: the fore-parts and the hind-parts. To effect this,
he employs two motive powers: the legs, which give the impulse by the
croup; and the hand, which directs and modifies this impulse by the head
and neck. A perfect harmony of forces ought then to exist always between
these two motive powers; but the same harmony is equally necessary
between the parts of the animal they are intended particularly to
impress. In vain would be our labor to render the head and neck
flexible, light, obedient to the touch of the hand; incomplete would be
the results, the equilibrium of the whole imperfect, as long as the
croup remained dull, contracted and rebellious to the direct governing
agent.
I have just explained the simple and easy means of giving to the
fore-parts the qualities indispensable to a good management thereof: it
remains to tell how we will fashion, in the same way, the hind-parts, in
order to complete the suppling of the horse, and bring about a uniform
harmony in the development of all his moving parts. The resistances of
the neck and croup mutually aiding one another, our labor will be more
easy, as we have already destroyed the former.
_The flexions of the croup, and making it movable._--
1. The rider will hold the curb-reins in the left hand, and those of the
snaffle, crossed, in the right, the nails of the right hand held
downward; he will first bring the horse's head into a perpendicular
position, by drawing lightly on the bit; after that, if he wishes to
execute the movement to the right, he will carry the left leg back
behind the girths and fix it near the flanks of the animal, until the
croup yields to this pressure. The rider will at the same time make the
left snaffle-rein felt, proportioning the effect of the rein to the
resistance which is opposed to it. Of these two forces transmitted thus
by the left leg and the rein of the same side, the first is intended to
combat the resistance, and the second, to determine the movement. The
rider should content himself in the beginning with making the croup
execute one or two steps only sideways. (Plate XIII.)
2. The croup having acquired more facility in moving, we can continue
the movement so as to complete to the right and the left reversed
pirouettes.[I] As soon as the haunches yield to the pressure of the leg,
the rider, to cause the perfect equilibrium of the horse, will
immediately draw upon the rein opposite to this leg. The motion of this,
slight at first, will be progressively increased until the head is
inclined to the side towards which the croup is moving, as if to look at
it coming. (Plate XIV.)
[I] See note, page 63.
[Illustration: Plates XIII. and XIV.]
To make this movement understood, I will add some explanations, the more
important as they are applicable to all the exercises of horsemanship.
The horse, in all his movements, cannot preserve a perfect and constant
equilibrium, without a combination of opposite forces, skillfully
managed by the rider. In the reversed pirouette, for example, if when
the horse has yielded to the pressure of the leg, we continue to oppose
the rein on the same side as this leg, it is evident that we will shoot
beyond the mark, since we will be employing a force which has become
useless. We must then establish two motive powers, the effect of which
balances, without interfering; this, the tension of the rein on the
opposite side from the leg will produce in the pirouette. So, we will
commence with the rein and the leg of the same side, until it is time to
pass to the second part of the work, then with the curb-rein in the left
hand, and finally, with the snaffle-rein opposite to the leg. The forces
will then be kept in a diagonal position, and in consequence, the
equilibrium natural, and the execution of the movement easy. The horse's
head being turned to the side where the croup is moving, adds much to
the gracefulness of the performance, and aids the rider in regulating
the activity of the haunches, and keeping the shoulders in place. For
the rest, tact alone will be able to show him how to use the leg and the
rein, in such a way that their motions will mutually sustain, without at
any time counteracting one another.
I need not remind you that during the whole of this exercise, as on all
occasions, the neck should remain supple and light; the head in position
(perpendicular) and the jaw movable. While the bridle hand keeps them in
this proper position, the right hand, with the aid of the snaffle, is
combating the lateral resistances, and determining the different
inclinations, until the horse is sufficiently well broken to obey a
simple pressure of the bit. If, when combating the contraction of the
croup, we permitted the horse to throw its stiffness into the
fore-parts, our efforts would be vain, and the fruit of our first labors
lost. On the contrary, we will facilitate the subjection of the
hind-parts, by preserving the advantages we have already acquired over
the fore-parts, and by keeping separated those contractions we have yet
to combat.
The leg of the rider opposite to that which determines the rotation of
the croup, must not be kept off during the movement, but remain close to
the horse and keep him in place, while giving from the rear forward an
impulse which the other leg communicates from right to left, or from
left to right. There will thus be one force which keeps the horse in
position, and another which determines the rotation. In order that the
pressure of the two legs should not counteract one another, and in order
to be able to use them both together, the leg intended to move the croup
will be placed farther behind the girths than the other, which will
remain held with a force equal to that of the leg that determines the
movement. Then the action of the legs will be distinct, the one bearing
from right to left, the other from the rear forwards. It is by the aid
of the latter that the hand places and fixes the fore legs.
To accelerate these results, at first, a second person may be employed
who will place himself at the height of the horse's head, holding the
curb-reins in the right hand, and on the side opposite to which we wish
the croup to go. He will lay hold of the reins at six inches from the
branches of the bit, so as to be in a good position to combat the
instinctive resistances of the animal. The one in the saddle will
content himself with holding lightly the snaffle-reins, acting with his
legs as I have already shown. The second person is only useful when we
have to deal with a horse of an intractable disposition, or to aid the
inexperience of the one in the saddle; but, as much should be done
without assistance as possible, in order that the practitioner may judge
by himself of the progress of his horse, seeking all the while for
means to increase the effects of his touch.
Even while this work is in an elementary state, he will make the horse
execute easily all the figures of the _manege de deux pistes_.[J] After
eight days of moderate exercise, he will have accomplished, without
effort, a performance that the old school did not dare to undertake
until after two or three years' studying and working at the horse.
[J] "_La piste_ is an imaginary line upon which the horse is
made to walk. When the hind legs follow the same line as the
fore ones, the horse is said to go _d'une piste_, or on one
line. He goes _de deux pistes_, or on two lines, when his hind
legs pass along a line parallel to that traced by the fore
legs."--_Baucher's Dictionnaire d'Equitation._
When the rider has accustomed the croup of the horse to yield promptly
to the pressure of the legs, he will be able to put it in motion, or fix
it motionless at will, and can, consequently, execute ordinary
pirouettes.[K] For this purpose he will take a snaffle-rein in each
hand, one to direct the neck and shoulders towards the side to which we
wish to wheel, the other to second the opposite leg, if it is not
sufficient to keep the croup still. At the beginning, this leg should be
placed as far back as possible, and not be used until the haunches bear
against it. By careful and progressive management the results will soon
be attained; at the start, the horse should be allowed to rest after
executing two or three steps well, which will give five or six halts in
the complete rotation of the shoulders around the croup.
[K] "The _pirouette_ is executed on the fore or hind legs, by making
the horse turn round upon himself, in such a way, that the leg
on the side he is going, acts as a pivot, and is the principal
support around which the other three legs move."--_Baucher's
Dictionnaire d'Equitation._
_Pirouettes_ are either _ordinary_ or _reversed_. In the ordinary
_pirouette_, one of the hind legs is the pivot on which the horse
moves; in the reversed, one of the fore legs.--TRANSLATOR.]
Here the stationary exercises cease. I will now explain how the suppling
of the hind-parts will be completed, by commencing to combine the play
of its springs with those of the fore-parts.
_Backing._--The retrograde movement, otherwise called backing, is an
exercise, the importance of which has not been sufficiently appreciated,
and which yet ought to have a very great influence upon his education.
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 shifting and re-shifting 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
pass 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 assure 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 horsemanship. 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 horsemanship does not consist in the direction to give
the horse, but in the position to make him assume--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 classing 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 horsemanship: 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.