282 SCHOOL BREAKING. 



Three months would be ample for teaching the horse 

 the course of instruction laid down in Chapters V. and VI. 

 and in the present one. 



ADDITIONAL SCHOOL MOVEMENTS. 



As all the airs which I have written about in the preceding 

 pages of this chapter are of use from a breaking point of 

 view ; I have thought fit to separate their description from 

 that of the following school exercises, which, though in- 

 teresting to look at, are of no practical value. As the work 

 of learning them is apt to make restive, from excessive 

 collection, horses which have not had a careful school 

 training, I would advise that they should not be attempted 

 until the pupil has mastered all the movements previously 

 described in this chapter, and is ready to go freely forward in 

 obedience to the pressure of the legs. Those of my readers 

 who wish to obtain further information about these airs 

 should consult Fillis's Principes de Dressage, and Barroil's 

 Art Equestre, in which they will find them lucidly and ex- 

 haustively described. 



EXTENSION OF A FORE LEG. 



Our object here is to make the horse, when at. the halt, 

 extend either of his fore legs, according as we wish, straight 

 out to the front, and hold it motionless, in a more or less 

 horizontal position, for a short time. 



Having placed the horse on the track of the riding-school 

 with, say, his off side towards the wall, we may, while 

 standing on the ground and facing him, take hold of the 

 reins by the left hand under the chin, raise the animal's 

 head up, and turn it towards the off side, so as to relieve the 

 near fore of weight, and begin to lightly tap the front of the 

 cannon bone (or fore-arm, as may appear most efficacious) 



