CHAPTER V 



TRAINING 



" Prove all things, and hold fast to the good." 

 "Make frequent demands and learn to be satisfied with the 

 slightest advance towards the desired result." 



"Mildness and perseverance will overcome all difficulties." 



The object of training should be to teach a horse to 

 carry out his rider's wishes with that grace and ease 

 which can only be attained if the muscles are supple, 

 and each part is balanced on its adjacent structure. 

 Contraction of the muscles indicates resistance or fear, 

 and is, as a rule, caused by the rider making demands 

 before the horse has been sufficiently educated, or at 

 a moment when the position of his limbs does not 

 enable him to carry them out. In training a hack we 

 should aim at obtaining absolute unconditional 

 obedience to the lightest indications of the aids. 



In dealing with a horse's mind, ideas should be 

 rightly connected and associated, so that a particular 

 movement is the natural sequence of the one 

 immediately preceding, and a rider should expect and 

 accept the natural results of his own action. In 

 horsemanship self-control is everything ; the proper 

 use of the will is to control oneself not others, and to 

 make oneself do the right thing immediately : the rider 



E 



