CHAPTER III 



SEAT, LEGS AND SPURS 



*' Use your hands and legs with judgment. Let your one 

 object be to keep your horse perfectly balanced. Do not allow 

 him to leave this position of his own accord, as it is the foundation 

 and complement of his education, and before three months have 

 passed the most ignorant animal will do his work with remarkable 

 precision."- — Baucher.* 



" The perfect horseman knows how to utilise the qualities 

 which make a horse dangerous in the hands of an inexperienced 

 rider ; he knows how to cadence and extend the j^aces, how to 

 obtain the most out of his horse with the least fatigue. He gives 

 ease and grace to his horse's movements, by the appropriateness 

 of his demands, and the guidance of his aids. He masters the 

 will of a rebel, and the most restive brutes become useful in his 

 hands, because he knows how to turn to his own ends the energy which 

 is prepared to resist him. In a word, the more capable the horse 

 of lightness and energy, even though ill-dispositioned, the more 

 submission, grace and power, the true horseman is able to com- 

 mand. But, to obtain these results, it is necessary to work hard, 

 in order to know how to prepare the horse rightly, to demand 

 properly, and to exact with energy."- — Lieut, de Saint Phalle. 



To have a good position it is first of all necessary to 

 have a well-made comfortable saddle, one with a slight 

 dip in the centre, a fairly roomy seat and a panel 

 thicker in front of the thighs and knees than under and 

 behind them. 



* F. Baucher lived in the reigns of Louis Philippe and 

 Napoleon III., and was the author, between the years 1833 and 

 1859, of many books on horsemanship, to the practical study of 

 which he devoted his life. 



