32 ANGLO-FRENCH HORSEMANSHIP 



We may now consider the use to which spurs can 

 be put in training. 



If the horse in the walk, trot or canter, persists in 

 trying to get the better of the hand by movements of 

 the head and neck, the rider should keep the spurs just 

 touching the hair close to the girths, for some little 

 time, keeping the hands steady and the fingers firmly 

 closed on the reins, without unduly checking the forward 

 movement by taking too strong a feeling on the mouth ; 

 the spurs should punish him every time he chucks his 

 head up or snatches at the bit. 



Horses that throw their heads about have, as a rule, 

 sharp bars to their mouths, and should be ridden in a 

 smooth bridoon and a bit with indiarubber rings on the 

 bar on either side of the port. 



To balance the horse the rider eases his hand 

 slightly, turns out the toes and cases the grip of the 

 knees ; presses down into the saddle, and stimulates 

 the horse with the legs just behind the girths, whilst 

 the hand receives the impulse, with a slight vibratory 

 upward feeling on the reins. In the highest form of 

 balance the horse has all his forces gathered together 

 exactly in the centre of his body, and he is ready to 

 spring into the air from all four legs, the rider's body 

 being so to speak the needle, as in a letter weighing- 

 machine, feeling when the ends of the horse are equally 

 weighted. 



There seems to me to be a difference between 

 balancing and collecting a horse : balancing prepares 

 him to be collected for a specific movement : before 

 rearing, a horse collects his weight on to his hind legs, 

 and before kicking, on to his fore legs. Men should not, 

 I think, be asked to collect their horses until they have 

 been told the movement that is required ; they should 



