SIDE STEPS AND TWO TRACKS. 135 



impulse, to transform the forward movement into a movement 

 from left to right, with the least possible resistance * 



I continue this work for a sufficiently long time, and 

 accentuate it according to the progress obtained, by which 

 I ^\•ish to say, that at first I am content to make the horse 

 take two or three side paces. Later on, w^hen he gets more 

 expert, I require more from him, always at the moment when 

 we arrive close to the wall, so as to obtain five or six side 

 steps. Further on, I begin the side steps at the middle of 

 the school, so that I can make him do twelve or fifteen steps. 

 I finally make him do the shoulder-in.f 



* Energetic impulse is the first condition of correctly executed work on two 

 tracks. It results from the firm support of the inward leg, providing that the 

 outward leg has a predominant action. 



If, during v/ork on two tracks, the inward hind leg of the horse is carried away 

 from the body instead of being brought under its centre — as would be the case if 

 there was sufficient impulsion — the horse will be inclined to get behind his bit ; the 

 cause of this fault being the insufficient energy of the inward leg of the rider, 

 the action of which ought to be supplemented by a corresponding action of the 

 outward leg. 



t I do not put the horse's shoulder to the wall until he has been well trained. 

 A horse has only too great a tendency to allow himself to be guided by the wall, 

 instead of giving himself up exclusively to the "aids." I greatly dislike con- 

 tinual work close to the wall. If the horse is straight and limits himself 

 to following the wall, whatever the pace may be, he will let himself be guided 

 by this permanent obstacle, much more than by the rider's "aids." He will 

 even take a kind of moral support from it, and his natural tendency will always be 

 to slightly carry away his croup, and to get the shoulder close to the wall ; hence 

 the difficulty of holding him straight, and of keeping him well between 

 the legs. 



In movements on two tracks, the wall leads the horse so well and helps him so 

 much in keeping his shoulders in the proper direction, that he quickly begins to 

 shave the wall too closely, which often becomes a " defence " on his part. 



If we remove the horse from the wall, we will be obliged to direct the 

 shoulders with the hand, which ought to be the only guide. If the horse, when 

 doing the shoulder-in, gets behind the bit, and brings his hind quarters too 

 close to the wall, we should stop the movement on two tracks without changing 

 the position of the horse, should push him forward with the legs, and make him 

 go down the centre of the school. No exercise is better than this to give impulse 

 in the movement on two tracks, and to make the horse independent of the 

 wall. 



