138 CAVALRY HORSEMANSHIP 



the horse, and becomes the best guarantee of his 

 boldness. If the rider is not keen, the horse soon 

 finds it out and becomes restive. The seat, which 

 is the close and supple contact of the pelvis and 

 thighs with the horse, insures the lightness of the 

 hand, gives the rider the use of his legs, which be- 

 come more than ever the agents of impulsion, and 

 enable him in case of mishap to save a fall by sinking 

 into the bottom of his saddle. 



The seat is independent of the body : a rider 

 can have the body slightly inclined forward and 

 still be close to his saddle, in the same way as he can 

 have his body back and yet be out of the plate. 



Fixity, which has been defined in horsemanship 

 as the absence of all involuntary and useless move- 

 ment, forbids here all exaggerated projection of the 

 body, all displacement of the legs forwards or back- 

 Avards, as also all movement of the hands. 



Suppleness is the result of a good seat and fixity 

 united by the suppleness of the loins ; it is the essential 

 quality which enables the rider to be one with his 

 horse in all the variations of pace ; it is what is called 

 going with one's horse. 



The laws of balance and the mechanism of the 

 paces demand from the rider that he should not 

 overcharge the working parts when jumping, that 

 is to say, the hindquarters, the seat of impulsion, 

 at the moment of the spring, and the forehand, which 

 supports the weight when the horse lands. 



Finally, the play of the neck, all the more pro- 

 nounced in proportion as the pace is slow and the 

 spring violent, demands that the rider's hand gives 

 the head a libert}^ proportioned to the energy of 

 the extension, so that the horse may be able to 



