40 CAVALRY HORSEMANSHIP 



the hands acting, resisting and yielding, according to 

 circumstances. 



{d) Then make the movements comphcated and 

 at fast paces, so as to give to the hands decision and 

 quickness. 



In the midst of these growing difficulties, the 

 instructor should satisfy himself that the rider rightly 

 uses all the action of hands and legs which are ordered, 

 and that he understands the effects, which are the 

 consequence. The instructor also shows the position 

 of the head and neck to be aimed at, the faults to 

 avoid, and will correct incessantly all the faults 

 committed. 



It is by a series of exercises for the hands and legs, 

 executed with a definite end in view, that the muscular 

 feeling, indispensable to the proper control of the horse, 

 is developed. Skill takes the place of the early awk- 

 wardness, and the rider has only to acquire the tact, 

 which is the result of experience, to enter into full 

 possession of all his means of controlling the horse, 

 and to overcome all difficulties as they present them- 

 selves. 



III. — The Proper Use of Energy 

 The Will 



Employment of the aids. — ^When the rider knows his 

 powers, and is master of them, it remains for him to 

 decide on their employment, and to use them tactfully. 



Equestrian tact, which has been defined as modera- 

 tion plus a propos, is the sense which watches over 

 the economical use of the powers of the horse and of 

 the rider ; it brings the latter to determine the effect 

 he wishes to produce, the intensity of this effect, and 



