40 METHOD OF HORSEMANSHIP. 



on this subject, I might very easily have 

 managed, by consulting old authors, by 

 transposing a sentence here, and changing 

 a word there, to have sent forth into the 

 equestrian world another inutility. But I 

 had other ideas ; I wished to make a tho 

 rough reform. My system for giving a good 

 seat to the rider, being also an innovation, 

 I feared lest so many new things at one 

 time should alarm even the best-intentioned 

 amateurs, and give a hold to my adversaries. 

 They would not have failed to say that my 

 means of managing a horse were imprac 

 ticable, or that they could not be applied 

 without recourse to a seat still more imprac 

 ticable. But now I have proved the con 

 trary that, upon my plan, horses have 

 been broken by troops without regard to the 

 men s seat. To give more force to my me 

 thod, and render it more easily comprehen 

 sible, I have divested it of all accessories, 



