CHAPTER IV 



TRAINING 



GENERALITIES.— The trained horse understands the 

 intentions of his rider from the least movement, 

 and repUes to it at once rightly, lightly, and with 

 energy. He is, in fact, a horse responsive to the leg, 

 and light to the hand. 



" Training " is different from " breaking " in that 

 during the fifth year the acclimatization and the 

 physical development of the young horse is the first 

 consideration of the rider, who will make the greatest 

 concessions because of his age, whilst at six years old, 

 it is the horse who must yield to the demands of the 

 rider and show a complete obedience. 



The training should not be undertaken until the 

 horse, strengthened by the open air, and a rational 

 breaking based on the principle of continual impulsion, 

 and confident in his rider, is in a condition to under- 

 stand the language of the aids, and to yield to their 

 demands. 



To give good results, training should be based on 

 a system, follow a method, and conform rigorously to 

 the rules which spring from the one and the other. 



The system is a collection of principles established 

 by experience and justified by reason. In the case of 



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