I/O ORDINARY RIDING. 



making the change of leg so easy, that the horse will often do 

 it on his own account, when prompted merely by the pre- 

 parations to which he has been submitted. In fact, when we 

 stop him on one leg, the " aids " ought to slightly prepare him 

 to start off on the other leg. 



Whenever I have had time to prepare a horse, I have never 

 failed to make him change his leg at the first attempt. What- 

 ever kind of horse he may be, he will always do one change 

 correctly, after having failed to do several. We should then 

 get off, pat him on the neck, and send him back to his stable. 

 At the following lesson we ought to repeat and prolong the 

 same lesson, until the animal changes easily from the near fore 

 to the off fore. Having then turned round, so as to go to the 

 left, we should, in the same way, make him change from the 

 off fore to the near fore. 



We should always avoid making him change at the same 

 place, as that would always make him want to change 

 when he passes it. It would therefore become impossible to 

 make him change as we wish, because our will would be 

 subordinated to his.* 



When I have got the horse to readily change from the out- 

 ward to the inward leg in the corners, I put him to do the 

 same work on a straight line. 



The change of leg should be required only at a certain 

 period of the stride, when it is easiest for the horse to do. As 



* I have said that in all things horses acquire habits with great facility. 

 Therefore, during breaking, we should most carefully avoid giving him bench- 

 marks (if I may use the term), whether by putting him to the same work at the- 

 same place, or by repeating different exercises in the same order. This advice is, 

 I think, all the more important, because the majority of riding masters persistently 

 give bench-marks to their horses, which makes the breaking apparently more 

 easy. Although the horse by routine does his work at a given moment, at certain 

 spots, and according to a j)rearranged programme, he is not properly trained, 

 because, so far from being submissive to the will of his rider, the rider has to 

 accommodate himself to the habits of the animal. Consequently the horse is 

 habituated, or, as we may say, " routined," but he is not l)rokcn iia. 



