PIAFFERS AND "PASSAGES." 



299 



impossible. Afterwards, as the action of the cutting whip or 

 driving whip causes the croup to be raised, the hind legs are 

 raised higher than the fore ones, and the neck is necessarily 

 depressed. But in the piaffer, as in the passage, the fore legs 

 ought always have the loftier action, which is the case when 

 these movements are taught only by the help of the hands 



Fig. 62. — Teaching the piafifer by means of a cutting whip. 



and legs ; because the hocks are then brought well under the 

 body, and the neck and forehand are consequently raised.* 



We can understand that the horses of the new school are 

 never broken in the true sense of the word. At best they 

 are machines and automatons which the first comer can make 



* Compare Figs. 60 and 61 with Fig. 62, which is copied from a photograph in 

 a recent work that describes the method of teaching the piafifer by means of 

 a cutting whip. In Fig. 62 the position of the head and neck is faulty, and the 

 forehand is so over-loaded that the animal cannot raise the fore leg, which ought 

 to be in the air, as in Figs. 60 and 61. In Fig. 62, on the contrary, the horse 

 simply bends the knee, and the toe touches the ground. He does the piaffer 

 only with his hind quarters, which are higher than the forehand. Contrary to 

 the intention of the author, all the vices of the piaffer, a la cutting whip, are 

 displayed in a striking manner by this illustration. 



