HORSE MOUNTED— FIRST DEFENCES. 8i 



balance. Usually the following happens : The horse by 

 suddenly getting up, causes the body of the rider to go back- 

 wards, which is sufficient to upset the animal. When a horse 

 is standing up on his hind legs, he may be compared to the 

 centre rod of a pair of scales which is in equilibrium ; and then 

 the slightest movement of the body of the rider, whether 

 forward or backward, forcibly draws the horse in the former 

 direction or in the latter. 



I have said that I do not believe that horses voluntarily 

 throw themselves backwards. I mean that a horse will not 

 deliberately throw himself backwards as a means of resist- 

 ance. His instinct of self-preservation will be sufficient to 

 prevent him doing this. But I know that horses which are 

 suffering from disease of certain nervous centres fall back- 

 wards, and sometimes dash their head against a wall. 

 Here we have no concern with animals which are affected 

 by a disease similar to madness in man, and which are 

 unsuitable for any kind of work. 



I have, however, broken, and seen broken by other breakers, 

 horses which had immobility or megrims. But they were only 

 violent and irritable, and their eyes became injected with 

 blood if upset in the slightest. In fact, they had only the 

 appearance of megrims. To succeed with such animals, we 

 require to have all the good qualities of a breaker and rider, 

 especially pluck. 



Some horses which are affected with only a certain degree 

 of immobilite can be broken. Gaulois, which was a superb 

 Hanoverian horse, was supposed to suffer from this disease. 

 I made him into an excellent school horse, and rode him for 

 several years. It is true that Gaulois, like many other horses 

 which are reputed to have iminobihti, showed symptoms of it 

 only when he " played up." 



I am greatly surprised that very few of all the authors who 

 have written on equitation say nothing of the struggles which 



