PIAFFERS AND "PASSAGES." 293 



I touch my horse on the right and on the left, but almost 

 simultaneously.* My right spur brings the off hind under the 

 animal's body, which causes the near fore to be raised ; and 

 my left spur, acting in its turn at the exact moment when the 

 left diagonal is in the air, produces a similar effect on the 

 right diagonal. I thus obtain the two first times of the 

 piaffer ; but at the beginning these two times ought to follow 

 each other so closely as to form, so to speak, a single time,-f- 

 exactly like in fencing, when the swordsman makes " one, two " 

 very close together. ;{: 



It often happens that the horse will plunge on feeling the 

 first hurried touches of the spurs. If he bounds forward, not 

 much harm will result, and we will learn that we have used 

 the spurs too strongly. We should therefore employ them 

 more lightly when we begin again. 



If at this period of the breaking we often repeat these two 

 first times of the piaffer, the horse will quickly understand 



* In fact, if I exclusively attack one side without immediately receiving the 

 horse on the opposite leg, I will succeed only in sending his haunches to the side. 



t If I allow an interval between them, there will be an alternate separation 

 of the legs to the right and to the left, as in a kind of rocking. 



I It follows, from what I have said, that these two first times are necessarily 

 those of a hurried piaffer. When we begin the piaffer, we cannot foretell what 

 will happen. As a rule, the horse will try to hurry it, on account of the spurs 

 making him impatient. Besides, the hurried piaffer being lower than the higher 

 piaffer, will require less exertion. Having obtained the piaffer of any kind, it 

 needs regulating, which will test the skill of the breaker. The difficulty is to 

 prevent the hurried piaffer occurring, or, rather, to change it into the slow piaffer, 

 by giving it height brought on by the rasseuibler. The more the rassembler, the 

 greater the height. The slow and high piaffer is obtained by energetic action of 

 the legs, lightness of hand, and, above all things, delicate tact in combining the 

 "aids." In the hurried piaffer, the legs are kept stiff, on account of their being 

 raised but little off the ground. In the high piaffer, the biped, which is in the 

 air, is greatly bent, while gaining height, and the fetlocks of the biped which is 

 on the ground almost touch it (Fig. 6i), so as to be able, in their turn, to raise 

 the body by their spring. 



When we go from the passage to the piaffer by shortening the passage, we can 

 regulate the times of the piaffer more easily on account of the cadence already 

 obtained ; but the tact of the rider is not the less necessary. 



