28 I^EW METHOD OF HORSEMANSHIP. 



Now, I ask, if before overcoming these first obstacles, 

 the rider adds to them the weight of his own body, and 

 his unreasonable demands, will not the animal experience 

 still greater difiiculty in executing certain movements? 

 The efforts we make to compel him to submission, being 

 contrary to his nature, will they not find in it an insur- 

 mountable obstacle? He will naturally resist, and with 

 so much the more advantage, that the bad distribution 

 of his forces will of itself be sufficient to paralyze those 

 of the rider. The resistance then emanates, in this case, 

 from a physical cause: which becomes a moral one from 

 the moment when, the struggle going on with the same 

 processes, the horse begins of his own accord to combine 

 means of resisting the torture imposed on- him, when 

 we undertake to force into operation parts which have 

 not previously been supplied. 



When things get into this state, they can only grow 

 worse. The rider, soon disgusted with the impotence of 

 liis efforts, will cast back upon the horse the responsibil- 

 ity of his own ignorance; he will brand as a jade an 

 animal possessing the most brilliant resources, and of 

 whom, with more discernment and tact, he could have 

 made a hackney as docile in character, as graceful and 

 agreeable in his paces. I have often remarked that 

 horses considered indomitable are those which develop 

 the most energy and vigor, when we know how to rem- 

 edy those physical defects which prevent their making 

 use of them. As to those which, in spite of their bad 

 formation, are by a similar system made to show a sem- 

 blance of obedience, we need thank nothing but the soft- 

 ness of their nature ; if they can be made to submit to 

 the simplest exercises, it is only on condition that we do 

 not demand anything more of them, for they would soon 

 find their energy again to resist any further attempts. 



