CHANGES OF DIRECTION. 73 



If the use of the wrists remains very nearly the same as 

 formerly, it is not so with the legs ; their motion will be 

 diametrically opposite to that given them in the old style 

 of horsemanship. This innovation is so natural a one, that 

 I cannot conceive why some one never applied it before 

 me. 



It is by bearing the hand to the right, and making the 

 right leg felt, people have told me, and I have myself at 

 first repeated it, that the horse is made to turn to the 

 right. With me, practice has always taken the prece- 

 dence of reasoning ; and this is the way I first perceived 

 the incorrectness of this principle. 



Whatever lightness my horse had in a straight line, I 

 remarked that this lightness always lost some of its deli- 

 cacy when moving in small circles, although my outside 

 leg came to the assistance of the inside one. As soon as 

 the hind leg put itself in motion to follow the shoulders 

 in the circle, I immediately felt a slight resistance. I 

 then thought of changing the use of my aids, and of 

 pressing the leg on the side opposite to the direction of 

 wheeling. At the same time, in place of bearing the 

 hand immediately to the right, to determine the shoul- 

 ders in that direction, I first, by the aid of this hand, 

 made the opposition necessary to render the haunches 

 motionless, and to dispose the forces in such a way as to 

 maintain the equilibrium during the execution of the 

 movement. This proceeding was completely successful; 

 and in explaining what ought to be the function of the 

 diiferent extremities, I recognize this as the only rational 

 way of using them in wheeling. 



In fact, in wheeling to the right, for example, it is the 

 right hind leg which serves as pivot and supports the 

 whole weight of the mass, while the left hind leg and 

 the fore legs describe a circle more or less extended. In 



