BAUCHER. 261 



became more common among civilians, the fact was 

 recognised that the long and arduous training of the 

 manege could not alone be dispensed with in the ordinary 

 riding horse ; but that it was not sufficient in itself to fit him 

 for rough and ready work outdoors, and especially in the 

 hunting field. Riding-school teaching has accordingly fallen 

 into disrepute in France almost as much as in England. 

 Like in many other changes of opinion, the good points of 

 the old style were lost sight of by those who went to the 

 opposite extreme. While relegating to the circus such 

 wholly useless airs as the Spanish trot and walk, and 

 cantering on three legs, we must not ignore the fact that 

 school work, judiciously applied, is an admirable system of 

 equine dancing, deportment, drill, or gymnastics (whichever 

 way we look at it) for teaching the horse to carry himself 

 in a well-balanced manner, and to obey the aids promptly 

 and with precision. We may regard it under three heads : 



(1) For forming the horse's mouth, paces, and manners ; 



(2) For show work, as in a circus ; and (3) for the require- 

 ments of military service. In the present chapter I shah 1 

 treat of the first and second divisions, in which the cavalry 

 element is so far ignored that the rider holds a rein in each 

 hand. Both the " knights of old," who used exceedingly 

 long stirrups, and Eastern horsemen, who had extremely 

 short ones, being unable to apply their legs as an aid, rode 

 their horses chiefly by the bridle, and having consequently 

 made them heavy in hand, were obliged to employ ex- 

 tremely severe bits to collect them. Baucher introduced 

 into school practice the admirable system of keeping the 

 horse light in hand by the use of the leg, or, if need be, of 

 the spur. Without wishing in any way to detract from the 

 credit due to Baucher in this matter, I may mention that the 

 system of riding a horse more by the legs than by the hands 

 appears to have been known in England and Ireland long 



