BREAKING 211 



the greater or less perfection of which constitutes the degree of 

 harmony that exists between the forces and the weight. The want of 

 this harmony occasions the ungracefulness of their paces, the difficulty of 

 their movements — in a word, all the obstacles to a good education." To 

 remove these defects, M. Baucher adopts certain methods of suppling 

 the neck, in which he considers the chief obstacle to perfect action 

 resides. Without going into the long details of the various supplings, it 

 will be sufficient to describe the genex'al division of the work which the 

 author considers necessary. This, he thinks, must extend to two months, 

 divided into one hundred and twenty lessons of half-an-hour each, two 

 being given each day. Dui'ing the first series of eight lessons, the 

 breaker will devote twenty minutes to the stationary exercise for the 

 flexions of the jaw and neck, which can hardly be efficiently described 

 without the illustrations given in the book itself. During the remaining 

 ten minutes, he will make the horse go forward at a walk, without 

 trying to animate him ; applying himself all the time to keeping the 

 horse's head in a perpendicular position. In the second series, com- 

 prising ten days, the fii\st fifteen minutes will be occupied in stationary 

 supplings and backings, followed by an equal time devoted to moving 

 straight ahead in the walk and trot. The rider, while taking care to 

 keep the head in good place, will commence a slight opposition of hand 

 and legs, in order to give regularity to the paces. The third series, 

 making up twelve days, will combine the previous supplings with 

 pirouettes ; while the fourth and fifth series, making up the whole time, 

 will go on to develop the various elementary paces of the manege. Now, 

 in all this, it appears to me that we have only our best English modes 

 of breaking carried out to excess ; and I am yet to learn that any great 

 novelty has been introduced by this standard authority of the French 

 school. 



Under the heading op " Rapid Methods of Breaking," Capt. 

 Hayes says : " We are indebted to American horse-trainers, from Rarey 

 down to Sample, for having furnished us with labour-saving methods of 

 breaking ... I must say that, with extremely few exceptions, any un- 

 handled or spoiled horse, no matter how wild, vicious, or old he may 

 be, can be made by quick methods, quiet to ride and ready to obey 

 the ordinary indications of the reins, in from two to four hours. Such 

 a horse, to become a reliable 'conveyance,' would probably require 

 about twelve more lessons — two a day — of an hour's duration each." 

 This gifted author goes on to say, "To those who might advance the 

 argument that because the ordinary course of breaking takes more than 

 ten times as long as the methods I advocate, it must therefore be moro 

 permanent in its influence, I would beg to submit that such a con- 

 tention would hold good only on the untenable supposition that the 

 effects of the respective processes were equal in force. I see no possible 

 benefit, except the questionable one of giving the animal an exaggerated 

 opinion of his own powers of resistance, in taking a month to accomplish 

 what may be done quite as efficiently in an hour . . . The intensity of 

 an effect, and not the time occupied in its production, is the measure of 

 its permanency." 



