USE OF THE SPUES. 19 



chastisement. With me it is, on the contrary, a power- 

 ful auxiliary, without which it would be impossible to 

 break any horse perfectly. How ! you exclaim, you 

 attack with the spur, horses that are sensitive, excit- 

 able, full of fire and action - horses whose powerful make 

 leads them to become unmanageable, in spite of the 

 hardest bits and the most vigorous anns ! Yes, and it is 

 with the spur that I will moderate the fury of these too 

 fiery animals, and stop them short in their most impetu- 

 ous bounds. It is with the spur, aided of course by the 

 hand, that I will make the most stubborn natures kind, 

 and perfectly educate the most intractable animal. 



Long before publishing my ** Comprehensive Diction- 

 ary of Equitation,'''' I was aware of the excellent effects 

 of the spur ; but I abstained from developing my prin- 

 ciples, being prevented by an expression of one of my 

 friends, whom I had shown how to obtain results, which 

 to him appeared miraculous. " It is extraordinary ! It 

 is wonderful !" he exclaimed ; " but it is a razor in the 

 hands of a monkey." It is true that the use of the 

 spurs requires prudence, tact, and gradation ; but the 

 effects of it are precious. Now that I have proved the 

 efficacy of my method ; now that I see my most violent 

 adversaries become warm partisans of my principles, I 

 no longer fear to develop a process that I consider one 

 of the most beautiful results of my long researches in 

 horsemanship. 



There is no more difference in sensibility of different 

 horses' flanks than in their sensibility of mouth — that is 

 to say, that the direct effect of the spur is nearly the 

 same in them all. I have already shown that the organ- 

 ization of the bars of the mouth goes for nothing in 

 the resistances to the hand. It is clear enough that 

 if the nose being thrown up in the air gives the horse a 



