Collecting. English Trotting. 287 



acquirement of this touch. It is the index of the horse's actions, temper, and intentions. It 

 forewarns the rider of what he is about to do ; by it the rider feels muscularly, without mental 

 attention, whether his horse requires more liberty or more collecting." 



It is this sensitiveness of mouth which makes the horse so superior for riding and driving 

 purposes to the ass. The fault of the ass is a deficiency of delicacy. You can guide a good 

 horse as accurately as a sailing-boat ; with an inch to spare, you can turn in and out of a 

 throng of vehicles with perfect confidence. The ass, when willing to go at either his slow 

 or fast pace, bores along incapable of receiving delicate indications. 



The best horsemen guide their trained horses with their legs as much as by their reins, 

 often without using them. It is because women ride on one side instead of astride that they 

 can never equal first-rate horsemen in the management of raw colts and obstinate horses. 



The importance of the preceding directions may not at first seem evident to pupils. They 

 may not see why they should walk their horses in small circles when they would like to 

 canter straight forward. They do not see why they should attempt to collect a horse that 

 collects himself. But this " collecting, urging, and retaining " are the foundations of the obe- 

 dience it is the object of horsemanship to enforce. 



By collecting, the horse is kept well upon his haunches, is guarded from crossing his legs, 

 and has, all the time, as the phrase goes, "a spare leg" to depend on. The horse's head, in 

 turning a corner, should not be pulled farther round than to allow the rider to see his eye. 



On broken ground intersected by ruts or holes, let the horse choose his ground, keeping 

 him alive by pressure of the legs if lazy or tired, without flurrying him. 



TROTTING. 



The trot is essentially an English pace ; that is. Englishmen invented the practice of rising 

 in the stirrups, by which the trot can be performed with the greatest ease to the horse and 

 the rider. Never begin to trot until you are quite at home in the walk, and feel that you can 

 do nearly all in the saddle that you could sitting in a chair. Begin trotting on horses easy in 

 their action and obedient to the reins, without being too light-mouthed. There are excep- 

 tional horses with so smooth and even a pace that it is not necessary to rise in their trot, or 

 at any rate perceptibly. 



The best trotters move audibly on hard roads in the time of I, 2, 3, 4, perhaps most 

 horses do; but there are certainly many which seem to trot i 2, and it takes practice to "rise" 

 in time with them. The picture at page 289 illustrates the distinct square trot of a roadster 

 rather than a park hack. 



The Continental and military practice is not to rise in the stirrups, but to try to sit close 

 to the saddle, relieved a little by the support of the knees and stirrups. No doubt there must 

 be good reasons for this practice of bumping (which was universal with all European horsemen, 

 civilian as well as military, until steeplechasing with English horses and riders was introduced 

 into France and Germany), because it is retained in the British cavalry in which the most 

 distinguished officers have been and are hunting men, who adopt the English style of riding 

 when they appear in plain clothes or hunting coats. 



The military horseman uses the curb rein in trotting, although he receives his first lessons 

 on a snaffle bridle without stirrups. 



Trotting and rising in the stirrups should be performed with the snaffle rein only : the feet 

 so placed in the stirrups that the heel can be kept well down without strain, the leg from the 



