PIAFFERS AND "PASSAGES." 297 



during the three defences I have mentioned, is to remain master 

 of him. If he resists the attacks of the spurs, when he is 

 stationary, I make him go forward at all hazards. I then close 

 my legs, and begin again, until he yields. The point upon 

 which I insist is, that we are always master of a horse when we 

 can make him go forward. 



These observations, of course, do not apply only to the 

 piaffer and passage. My reason for having dwelt on this 

 subject so long, is that the means I have mentioned are always 

 the same which I use for combatting defences — always the 

 same which the horse adopts when he is touched by the spur, 

 while he is kept in one place.* 



Men of the new school, of whom I had occasion to speak in 

 the preceding chapter, employ, in order to teach the piaffer, 

 means not less strange, though more brutal, than that which 

 they use for teaching the Spanish walk. They open the door 

 of the school, and place the horse, with his head turned to the 

 side of the stable, close to the opening of this door, to make 

 him impatient. One man is on his back, another holds the 

 caveson, and a third stands behind the animal, with a driving 

 whip in his hand.f They then put on each pastern a leather 

 hobble, to which is attached a piece of wood in the shape of 

 an &g'g. 



When the horse moves a foot, or rather when he puts it down, 



* Many breakers, when alluding to horses which have got the better of them, 

 say, in order to excuse themselves, that nothing can be done with animals which 

 kick, rear, or run back each time they feel the spur. The truth is that their 

 method is faulty! Sometimes they boast that they punished their horse so 

 severely that he could not get up for several days, a statement which only 

 proves their brutality. In the worst battle with a horse, I have never ill-treated 

 him to such an extent as to bring him down. I have never even fatigued him 

 so much as to make him unable to resume his work on the following day. 



t These gentlemen only work all together— always several tormentors for one 

 victim. Besides, they are so convinced that they cannot do otherwise, that 

 they scoff at those who say that a breaker ought to ride his horse and break 

 him without the help of anyone, a fact which appears to them to be simply 

 impossible. 



