20 NOTES ON EQUITATION 



11, 1824, the cavalry school was definitely established at 

 Saumur. 



Contemporary Equitation. We now come to contempory 

 equitation, for a long time divided into two schools; a new 

 school, that of Baucher, and the d'Aure school which con- 

 tinned the methods taught at Versailles. 



Baucher. Little is known of Baucher 's antecedents. At 

 the age of 15 he set out for Italy with one of his uncles who 

 was an instructor in riding schools. He returned to France 

 a few years later and located in Paris. First he gave les- 

 sons in a small riding academy in the Rue Montmartre; 

 then he went into a circus in order to popularize his meth- 

 ods. The Minister of War had his system tested in the 

 Army on two different occasions; one trial was at Saumur. 

 The Baucher system, however, was never officially adopted 

 in the cavalry. 



Baucher's methods were entirely different from those 

 taught at the Versailles school. Much more complicated 

 than the Count d'Aure's method, it marked in a way, a 

 return to the suppling of the early riding masters. The for- 

 mula that Baucher often repeated was this: "Destroy the 

 instinctive forces and replace them by transmitted forces." 

 To carry out this program, it was necessary to begin with a 

 series of supplings; "Flexions of the jaw; flexions of the 

 neck, lateral flexions and mobilizing the hind quarters 

 about the shoulders; swinging the fore quarters about the 

 haunches; combination of the play of both extremities or 

 backing." 



All this preliminary work was done in place, and result- 

 ed in the ''Gather^^ (he ramenerj ; later by the use of so- 

 called ^'attacks'' and ''collecting effects,^' he arrived at the 

 'Wssemhle^^ ( Le rasspnihlerj These first lessons were sup- 

 plemented by a few movements at the walk, trot and gallop, 

 and were supposed to complete the training of a horse in 

 two months. 



As for the high school, this was Baucher's triumph. He 



