APPENDIX U3 



This application of the spur should be gentle, but at 

 the same time quick and sudden. In the same way, if 

 the pace slackens, or if a position indicated by the 

 rider's legs is abandoned, then a light touch of the 

 spurs is required. 



The legs should fall naturally and should no longer 

 touch the horse, except when absolutely necessary — as 

 seldom as possible in fact. — After having required by the 

 hand alone, certain movements, it is necessary, as the 

 action of the hand always brings the horse back on to 

 his hocks, in order to prevent the horse from getting 

 behind the hand, to touch him lightly with both spurs 

 at the same time. 



The principle " Legs without hands and hands without 

 legs " ought to be adhered to as much as possible, 

 especially during the early part of training. It must 

 not, however, be made a system, otherwise failure is 

 certain. We should confine ourselves to putting it in 

 practice so long as there is no serious reason to depart 

 from it, but there comes a moment in the training, and 

 later on in the handling of a trained horse, when it is 

 necessary, on the contrary, to combine the effects of the 

 lower aids with those of the upper ones, legs and hands. 

 Thus, when a horse already well advanced in his train- 

 ing does not balance himself at a gentle hint from the 

 hand, we should have recourse to gentle pressure of the 

 calves, and then if the lower jaw does not mobilise itself 

 immediately, follow up with a light touch of the spurs, 

 the prick teaching the horse that he must obey the leg. 

 In the same way, when we wish to stop a horse in the 

 different paces, by the hand alone, it is necessary that 

 the horse should first be light in hand and balanced. 

 If the lower jaw resists the action of the bit, close the 

 legs gently, and if the horse does not balance himself 

 immediately, then give a light touch with the spurs 

 before demanding the stop. It is thus that we make a 

 horse really sensitive to the aids, and we arrive at the 



