80 NEW METHOD OP HOKSEMANSHIP. 



force of resistance equal to two hundred pounds, this 

 force will be reduced to one hundred pounds, when we 

 bring the horse's head half-way towards a perpendicular 

 position ; to fifty pounds when brought still nearer that 

 position, and to nothing when perfectly placed. The pre- 

 tended hardness of mouth proceeds in this case from the 

 bad position of the head caused by the stiffness of the neck 

 and the faulty construction of the loins and haunches of the 

 horse. If we carefully examine the causes that produce 

 what is called sensibility of the flanks, we will discover 

 that they have very much the same kind of source. 



The innumerable conjectures to which people have 

 devoted themselves, in attributing to the horse's flanks a 

 local sensibility that had no existence, have necessarily 

 injured the progress of his education, because it was 

 based upon false data. The greater or less sensibility 

 of the animal proceeds from his action, from his faulty 

 formation, and bad position resulting therefrom. To a 

 horse of natural action, but with long weak loins, and 

 bad action behind, every motion backward is painful, 

 and the very disposition that leads him to rush ahead, 

 serves him to avoid the pain of the spur. He returns to 

 this movement whenever he feels the rider's legs touch 

 him ; and far from being a spirited horse, he is only 

 scared and crazy. The more he feels the spur, the more 

 he plunges out of hand, and baffles the means intended 

 to make him obedient. There is everything to fear from 

 such a horse ; he will scare at objects from the very ease 

 he possesses of avoiding them. Now since his fright pro- 

 ceeds, so to say, from the bad position we allow him to 

 take, this inconvenience will disappear from the moment 

 we remedy the first cause of it. We must confine the 

 forces in order to prevent every displacement. We must 

 separate the physical from the moral horse, and force 



