EQUESTRIAN TACT. 131 



Although I have ridden horses for fifty years, I did not 

 obtain perfect rassembler until the last ten years. It is 

 true that I worked for a long time according to the somewhat 

 inexact data of Baucher. But the fact is that for many 

 years I continually felt the rassembler escape me, by the dis- 

 placement of the centre of gravity, whether to the front or to 

 the rear. I had to greatly refine my tact and consequently 

 my " aids " to obtain the complete rassembler, and to preserve 

 it with a maximum amount of propulsion. 



But this is not all. There are not only direct movements, 

 but also those to the side and when turning. In these move- 

 ments one leg always predominates, in which case the 

 impulsion which comes on the bit is not equally distributed 

 between the two hands. The right leg throws more 

 impulsion on the left hand, and vice versa. It is therefore 

 necessary, in order to preserve equilibrium in turning to the 

 left, that the left hand, while remaining bound to the right 

 hand, sends back to the centre a larger amount of force, 

 which is all the more difficult to measure ; because this hand, 

 while keeping up the rassembler, has to regulate the change of 

 direction.* 



If we now reflect that in all work of equitation, the horse, 

 whether going forward or keeping himself back, constantly 

 tries to escape to the right or to the left, by his haunches 

 or shoulders, we will see that in order to maintain perfect 

 equilibrium we have to simultaneously perceive all the actions 

 of the horse and all those which are being prepared, so as to 

 combine them by opposing them, by the simultaneous action 

 of the " aids," and to produce from them the desired 

 ideal of equilibrium. 



I said a short time ago that the rassembler in direct move- 



* The difficulty is so great that Baucher acknowledges that the " lightness " 

 (read rassembler) escaped him in changes of direction. The fault was less his, 

 than that of the bad position of the neck which I have pointed out. 



9* 



