^6 ORDINARY RIDING. 



same distance between the reins of the curb and those of 

 the snaffle as determined by the httle finger and thumb. 



By an inverse movement, we can replace the four reins in 

 the left hand, in the position which they previously occupied. 

 I need hardly add that, until the breaking of the horse is 

 fairly well advanced, we do not draw up all four reins, which 

 would consequently tend to combine and sometimes even to 

 ■confuse their effects. When we have to deal with a green or 

 insufficiently broken horse, in which case we may require to 

 produce very quickly precise and particularly decisive effects, 

 it is well to separate the reins. 



TEACHING A HORSE BY THE WHIP TO OBEY LEGS 

 AND SPURS. 



I invariably begin my lesson by repeating the former exer- 

 cises, but every day I require something new from the horse. 



As soon as the horse goes freely in every direction with a 

 slight play of the jaw, I teach him to obey the leg and then 

 the spur. This work should be done on foot and by means 

 of the cutting whip. 



While facing the horse, I take the snaffle in the left hand* 

 close to the mouth so as to hold the head high. With the 

 whip, which I hold in my right hand, I touch the horse very 

 lightly just behind the girths, at the place where the spur will 

 act, and at the same time I carry his head to the left.-f* The 

 horse should thereupon carry his haunches to the right. He 

 will show that he obeys by taking one or two steps in that 



* The buckle of the bridoon rein ought to remair. in the left hand during all 

 the work on foot. 



t This is what is termed lateral effects, because the effect on the forehand and 

 that on the hind quarters are produced on the same side. In diagonal equitation, 

 which is rational equitation and the consequence of good breaking, the effect on 

 the forehand is always on the side opposite to that on the hindquarters. It is 

 the only way to secure the movements in their entirety. 



