TRAINING 89 



The trainer should be suOiciently sensitive to 

 percei\'e the sii^ns whieh preeede impatienee and 

 re\'olt, and to limit and cease his demands in time. 

 It is, besides, easy enough to avoid making a horse 

 imimtient, and one can make him repeat every day 

 the same series of exercises, providing that a certain 

 variety is introduced, and on condition that after 

 each movement has been well done, a few minutes 

 of rest are given to break the work, and induce a 

 necessary relaxation. 



In order that the education of the horse may be 

 complete, it is not only necessary that obedience 

 should be prompt and absolute, but also that it should 

 be automatic. It is sufficient, when the horse's 

 education has reached this stage, to give one of the 

 indications, formerly closely combined, for the mechan- 

 ism of association to unfold itself and provoke the 

 execution of the movement required. At first, to 

 obtain, and with difficulty, the start of the gallop, 

 it is necessary to use both hands to displace the fore- 

 hand, and both legs to give the position and impulsion ; 

 later on, the closing? of the finwrs on one rein, and the 

 mere touch of the boot suffices to produce this move- 

 ment, because this action has recalled all the other 

 sensations now absent. 



It is by repetition that associations penetrate the 

 memory, and consequently the operation is long. 

 But by substituting for the repetition, or better still 

 in adding to it, the intensity of one of the sensations 

 transmitted, we hurry on the education. Strong 

 impressions, though seldom repeated, impress much 

 more quickly the associations on the mind than feeble 

 impressions often repeated, which, according to his 

 temperament, tire or unnerve the horse. 



