THE SPANISH WALK. 237 



horses as well as of men — they would not be able to stand it, 

 and would break down. But if the effort required for the 

 gradual exercises is proportionate to the increase of muscular 

 power, the work — no matter how severe it may be — will be 

 comparatively easy, and even healthy,* 



It is true that many horses have been ruined by high-school 

 work ; but only because the work was badly carried out, or 

 because the preliminary training was insufficient. Riding, 

 like other sciences, has its charlatans and its empirics. When 

 a horse has been methodically broken, the practice of all the 

 exercises through which he has gone, so far from ruining him, 

 will only strengthen him. 



With respect to horsemen who turn up their noses at high- 

 school riding, and speak of it with contempt, I content myself 

 with reminding them of the fable of the fox and the grapes. 



THE SPANISH WALK. 



A horse is said to do the Spanish walk,*|- when he raises his 

 fore legs one after another, by carrying them forward and ex- 

 tending them. 



The principal thing to observe is the way in which a horse 

 puts his foot on the ground ; for although it is easy to make 

 him raise his legs, it is very difficult to make him put them 

 down properly. 



The breaker ought to begin this work on foot, while standing 

 at the left shoulder of the horse and on the left track, in which 



* My horses never get even the slightest blemish from my breaking, although 

 I begin to break them much earlier than any of my predecessors have done. 



t It has never been known why this movement is called the Spanish walk. 

 There is nothing Spanish in it, except the name, and it by no means resembles 

 the walk of the Andalusian animal. When the Spanish horse walks, he bends 

 his knees and brings the lower part of the legs inwards, which peculiarity is 

 called el pasode campafia (the walk of the bell) on the other side of the Pyrennees. 

 It would be more appropriately termed the "recruits' balance step," because 

 there is a great similarity between the two. 



