26 NEW METHOD OF HORSEMANSHIP. 



ing as these transfers are executed with correctness or 

 irregularity. 



It is understood that this motive power is subdivided 

 ad infinitum^ since it is spread over all the muscles of the 

 animal. When the latter himself determines the use of 

 them, the forces are instinctive ; I call them transmitted 

 when they emanate from the rider. In the first case, 

 the man governed by his horse remains the plaything of 

 his caprices ; in the second, on the contrary, he makes 

 him a docile instrument, submissive to all the impulses 

 of his will. The horse, then, from the moment he is 

 mounted, should only act by transmitted forces. The 

 invariable application of this principle constitutes the 

 true talent of the horseman. 



But such a result cannot be attained instantaneously. 

 The young horse, in freedom, having been accustomed 

 to regulate his own movements, will, at first, submit 

 with difficulty to the strange influence which comes to 

 take the entire control of them. A struggle necessarily 

 ensues between the horse and his rider, who will be 

 overcome unless he is possessed of energy, patience, and, 

 above all, the knowledge necessary to gain his point. 

 The forces of the animal being the element upon which 

 the rider must principally work, first to conquer, and 

 finally to direct them, it is necessary he should fix his 

 attention upon these before anything else. He will 

 study what they are, whence they spring, the parts 

 where they contract the most for resistance, the physical 

 causes which occasion these contractions. When this is 

 discovered, he will proceed with his pupil by means in 

 accordance with his nature, and his progress will then be 

 rapid. 



Unfortunately, we search in vain in ancient or modern 

 authors, on horsemanship, I will not say for rational 



