Manual of Equitation and Horse Training 53 



pericnce under present conditions of raising horses, and no 

 one has the right to disregard it, except in case of mob- 

 ilization. 



The preparation of the troop horse for his career com- 

 prises two periods, each corresponding to a very distinct 

 end in view: 



(1) The breaking, to which is devoted the first military- 

 year of the colt (4 and 5 years old) ; its object is his phys- 

 ical development, which is obtained bj^ appropriate work, 

 and formation of his character. 



(2) The training, properly said, to which the second 

 military year is devoted (5 and 6 years old) and whose 

 object is his complete submission to the aids. 



These two years, in spite of their special denomination, 

 do not constitute two clearly divided periods; they repre- 

 sent together the necessary time for the remount to re- 

 spond physiologically to the requirements of military 

 service. The words "6?*eafci7ip" and "trairi'in.^," neverthe- 

 less, each carries its idea which constantly reminds the 

 instructors of the great difference in the work w^hich an 

 unwelded colt may endure and the requirements which 

 may be demanded of a horse of 6 years. One should only 

 submit the young horse to the necessarily severe gymnas- 

 tics of training when his "morale" on one hand, and de- 

 velopment of his frame on the other allow him to undergo it 

 without fatigue. 



The graduation observed in the exercises to which the 

 development of the young horse is submitted constitutes a 

 true conditioning, with laws, principles, and a hj'^giene 

 proceeding from the horse's nature itself. In what con- 

 cerns training the progression is practically the same as 

 that employed in the instruction of the rider. This meth- 

 odical order, in effect, proceeds from the simple to the dif- 

 ficult, it regulates the demands of the rider according to 

 the ease with which the horse is able to answer them, and 

 causes the combinations of the aids to be increasingly 

 difficult. 



One must be careful, at least in the beginning, to exe- 

 cute the movements under the same conditions and in the 

 same manner, until the horse is confirmed in his knowledge 

 of the rider's actions by the effect of repetition. It is only 

 little by little that an obedience, at first laborious and 

 uncertain, will be transformed into nearly instinctive habit. 



