TRAINING 55 



of the neck, and he maintains that this soon teaches 

 the horse to avoid control by getting behind the hand. 

 Baucher's partiaHty, however, for a level balance 

 with the weight equally distributed between the fore- 

 hand and hindquarters, and flexions which Caused a 

 horse to lower his neck, arose from the conformation 

 of the horses he at first trained ; he purposely selected 

 badly made horses, which carried their necks too high, 

 or which had weak hindquarters, and he consequently 

 commenced his flexions by making the horse bend his 

 neck from the shoulders, but later on in this education 

 he taught them to make the half flexion with the lower 

 part of the neck stiff. In his later writings he especially 

 emphasises the desirability of having a high carriage 

 to the neck ; although he does not say that with the 

 high neck the horse cannot with any comfort keep the 

 line of his face perpendicular, which, according to him, 

 is the sine qua non of perfect balance, unless he is 

 exceptionally wide between the jaw^s. The position 

 of the head in this respect really depends upon the 

 state of collection required for the pace ; if freedom 

 of movement is wanted, the line of the face should give 

 an open angle at the junction with the neck, and the 

 nose will be in front of the perpendicular line as recom- 

 mended by Mr. Fillis, but to keep a horse evenly 

 balanced on the forehand and hindquarters the face 

 must be perpendicular ; moreover, to carry weight in 

 the slow paces it seems right that the face should be 

 perpendicular without the jaw bones being pinched 

 against the neck, and that the height of the neck should 

 conform to this necessity ; whereas in the fast paces 

 the horse should be allowed to extend his nose so as 

 to get the weight off his driving power. 



When the horse is thoroughly trained and obedient 



