56 ORDINARY RIDING. 



a second snaffle, if the head is low, presses freely on the bars, 

 and develops all its power when the head is raised, provided 

 always that the head is kept a little beyond the perpen- 

 dicular. The moment the axis of the head comes behind the 

 perpendicular, the action of the curb is false, because it works 

 from below upwards. Then the horse begins to draw his 

 chin into his breast. 



Such, I consider, is direct flexion and its object. 



We can see that this flexion, as I practice it, is not done 

 by chance or simple routine. On the contrary, I have care- 

 fully given my reasons, and I have touched on all details to 

 justify my practice. 



Unfortunately Baucher, who was the first to improve the 

 art of flexions, by making it the base of his method, did not 

 give a complete account of its mechanism. This did not 

 matter much to him, because his marvellous equestrian tact 

 remedied every deficiency. Where his theory was false, his 

 hands and legs by themselves rectified, more or less 

 conscientiously, the error of his doctrine. 



Baucher, however, could not put his tact into his books, 

 in which he left his good and bad doctrines. I consider that 

 by criticising him and by showing where he has failed, I shall 

 render increased homage to the great horseman. I maintain 

 that the flexion which Baucher has described, and which 

 is practised every day,* has done much to discredit in the 

 minds of horsemen this most useful exercise, which I con- 

 sider to be the first condition of good equitation. 



Baucher's faulty flexion, which is in very common use 

 to-day, is made at the withers instead of at the poll. It 

 lowers the neck, and causes the horse to place the weight on 

 his shoulders, that is to say, it aggravates the natural fault 

 in equine conformation, and it makes him liable to fall by 



* Alas ! ihe faults of masters are acquired more easily than their good qualities. 



