THE NECK, THE HEAP, ETC. 145 



/ree" (to be clean they must be equable and their 

 rhythm perfect; to be free they must be made without 

 apparent effort or marks of distress) ; " which allows 

 him to turn willingly and without an effort or dis- 

 turbance of his pace; to diminish or increase this with- 

 out hesitation; to rein back, preserving a proper degree 

 of feeling, and immediately to advance again freely if 

 called upon." 



Now, although a star-gazer with an ewe-neck, or a 

 borer that can only go with his nose close to the 

 ground, are totally unfit for military purposes, we 

 must take average horses, and allow one to poke out 

 his nose a little more than another ; nor can we always 

 help its coiling up its head and neck like a snail, so 

 long as they go clean and free — which is precisely what 

 Baucher's encapuclionne carriage of the head and neck 

 does not favour ; but the higher we get both head and 

 neck without sacrificing cleanness and freedom of pace 

 the better, if for no other reason than that there always 

 must be something in front of the military saddle which 

 keeps the bridle-hand at a certain distance above the 

 horse's withers, close down to which the civilian rider 

 can easily place it. Carriage is, however, not the re- 

 sult of bitting alone ; it depends, as we have already 

 shown in Part I., on a judicious system of saddling, pack- 

 ing, and riding, the bitting forming '^ le couronnement 

 de Vedifice,^^ without which the remainder is of com- 

 paratively little use to the soldier, because he must 

 ride altogether ivith one hand, and he requires his whole 

 body, from the hips upwards, with the exception of 

 this one hand, for the use of his weapons. 



Good bitting, saddling, packing, and riding, are 

 what render cavalry available and durable ; they secure 



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