Manual of Equitation and Horse Training 77 



movement, some moments of repose which break the work 

 and produce the necessary and sufficient relaxation. 



For the horse's education to be complete his obedience 

 must be not only prompt and absolute; it must be auto- 

 matic. When the horse has that, the producing of the 

 least signal suffices to unroll the mechanism of association 

 and provoke the execution of the movement demanded. 

 In the beginning it was necessary, in order to obtain a 

 labored gallop depart, to use both hands to place the fore- 

 hand and both legs to place and determine the impul- 

 sion: later on, the closing of the fingers on the rein or 

 the mere feeling of the boot suffices to obtain this same 

 movement, because this action has awakened the remem- 

 brance of all the other absent sensations. 



Since it is by repetition that associations penetrate the 

 memory, the operation is necessarily long. But by substi- 

 tuting for the repetition, or rather by adding to it, the 

 intensity of a transmitted sensation, the progress is hasten- 

 ed. Strong impressions, even though little repeated, leave 

 associations in the mind more quickly than weak ones 

 which weary or enervate the horse, according to his tem- 

 perament. 



It is by reason of these principles that the curb bit and 

 spur, when properly used, allow the duration of training to 

 be shortened. If the horse, by distraction, laziness, or bad 

 intent, attempts to avoid doing what is expected of him, 

 the energetic action of the fingers on the reins or a simple 

 pinch of the spurs will quickly remind him of the estab- 

 lished convention; to fix the associations, by the intensity 

 of one of the impressions associated, is one of the keys of 

 training. 



Pniiciples of movement. — The locomotive energy of the 

 horse takes, in equitation, the name of forward movement 

 or impulsion. 



Impulsion. — The forward movement is the first degree 

 of impulsion. This quality exists in the horse when he 

 responds to the first pressure of the legs by extending his 

 action without sensibly increasing the height of the move- 

 ments. 



Impulsion is forward movement submitted to the exact 

 discipline of the aids, and exploited in view of the object 

 to be obtained. It is the base of training. It resides in the 



