HANDS 



or easing of the fingers on the reins. This 

 school believes in jambes sans mains but not in 

 mains sans jambes. 



Both schools aim at bringing the horse 

 under the control of the hand, but the less 

 visible movement there is of the hands or legs, 

 whichever may be used to enforce obedience, 

 the better. It must be remembered that a 

 demi-arret is in no way a "job in the mouth," 

 it is a steady upward pull followed by an almost 

 imperceptible jerk forwards from the wrist. 

 This is a very different thing from the sudden 

 slackening of the reins, followed by a sharp 

 quick snatch at them, to which the ordinary 

 stable help occasionally treats his master's 

 horses. 



The advantage of training a horse and 

 making his mouth with the legs, is that they 

 can punish with the spurs if the horse does not 

 answer to their pressure, whereas the hands 

 should never punish a horse's mouth, and a 

 self-willed horse soon disregards their indica- 

 tions and learns to avoid their action ; more- 

 over demi-arrets and vibrations, however gently 

 administered, are apt to produce contractions 

 of the jaw, and to excite the horse's brain and 

 prevent him from calmly thinking and finding 

 out what is required of him. 



47 



