160 METHOD OF HORSEMANSHIP. 



The rider's employment of force, when 

 properly applied, has a moral effect also on 

 the horse, that accelerates the results. If 

 the impulse given by the legs find in the 



the defect that is supposed; in other words, that it is very 

 rare that they are paralyzed in their shoulders so as to 

 injure the regularity and speed of their paces, principally 

 as regards trotting. The shoulders of the horse, if I may 

 use the comparison, resemble the wings of a windmill; 

 the impulse given by the hocks replaces the motive force. 

 There undoubtedly exist some local complaints that affect 

 the shoulders ; but this difficulty is very rare ; the defect, 

 if there be one, has its origin in the hind parts. For my 

 part, I have been able to make all such horses very free 

 in their movements, and that after fifteen days of exercise, 

 half an hour a day. The means, like all I employ, are 

 very simple. They consist in suppling the neck to get 

 the horse in hand, and then, by the aid of the legs, and 

 afterwards slight use of the spurs, in bringing his haunches 

 nearer the centre. Then the hocks will obtain a leverage, 

 by which they can propel the mass forward, and give the 

 shoulders a freedom that people would not expect. 



