CHAPTER X. 

 FEENCH METHOD OF TRAINING. 



There is a method of training, invented by a French 

 rider, Baucher, and named after him, which is an effec- 

 tive means for making both horse and rider perfect in 

 their "work. Its details are too minute for repetition 

 here, but they are well set forth in " Herbert's Hints to 

 Horse-keepers," and will well reward the attention of 

 those who have the time and the enthusiasm to follow 

 them out. By their aid, an unbroken horse, if a good 

 subject, can be made a very nearly perfect saddle beast in 

 two months' time, having a lesson of thirty minutes or 

 less, morning and night. 



Its general principles are : To teach the horse but one 

 thing at a time ; to teach that thoroughly before pro- 

 ceedmg with the next step ; to make the lessons so short 

 as not to disgust the pupil ; to reward obedience more 

 especially than to punish disobedience, or rather non- 

 obedience ; to make the horse thoroughly supple in every 

 muscle of his body, and to teach him to move all his 

 members as easily, under the rider's weight, and under 

 the restraint of his hands and legs, as he would do if 

 playing in a pasture ; and to practice him in handling 

 the rider's weight, and in obeying the rider's impulses 

 and restrictions, so that all his movements shall be made 

 m accordance with the rider's will rather than his own, 

 (85) 



