296 HIGH-SCHOOL RIDING. 



the horse goes forward. Otherwise, he will not know when he 

 does wrong or when he does right, because he gets beaten 

 whether he goes forward or back. I therefore particularly 

 advise the breaker never to lose his temper, although retaining 

 the utmost energy. 



I once had a black thorough-bred, called Negro, which I 

 rode in public for four or five years. He never failed me in 

 work, although he was peevish and screamed when touched 

 with the spur. When I began to break him, he ran back 

 immediately I closed my legs. 



For two months he did not stop running back under me 

 during a lesson of twenty minutes each day. I was in despair. 

 All the breakers of my acquaintance said that I would never 

 succeed in making him go forward, yet he gave in at last. He 

 even became an excellent lady's horse, and never relapsed into 

 the troublesome vice, of which I had great trouble to cure him. 

 To succeed in this, I used the spurs only by touches. They 

 should never be kept stuck in the animal's sides.* The spurs 

 which I used were very sharp, and I applied them, as I always 

 do, as close as possible to the girths.i* I, of course, took care 

 to pat the animal on the neck the moment he went forward. 

 I must, however, admit that after a struggle during twenty 

 minutes without ceasing, I was completely exhausted, and so 

 was my horse. To break such an animal, one must be young, 

 have a very strong seat and good loins, because they are the 

 first to get tired. 



The reason for ceasing to keep the horse in the same place, 



* In fact, it is the pain which is renewed at each moment that makes the 

 horse fly from the spur. If it is kept against his side he will rest on it, and will 

 inevitably jib. 



t There, and only there, will the touch- of the spur give impulsion. Its touch 

 further back will cause forward movement, but without impulsion, and further, it 

 will tickle the horse, on account of the far greater sensibility of that part. Only 

 a touch, as near as possible to the girths, brings the hock under the centre of the 

 body ; hence the impulsion. I am always tearing my girths to ribbons. 



