82 NEW METUOD OF HOKSEMANSHIP. 



govern at the same moment. I will make this principle 

 more clear by a short explanation. 



We will suppose a horse at a walk, employing a force 

 of forty pounds, necessary to keep the pace regular till 

 the moment of the opposition of the hands and legs 

 which follow. By and by comes a slow and gradual 

 pressure of the legs, which adds ten pounds to the 

 impulse of the pace. -As the horse is supposed to be 

 perfectly in hand, the hand will immediately feel this 

 passage of forces, and must then make itself master of 

 them to transfer them to the centre. Meanwhile the 

 legs will continue their pressure, to the end that these 

 forces thus driven back may not return to the focus they 

 had left, which would be but a useless ebbing and flow- 

 ing of forces. This succession of oppositions well com- 

 bined will bring together a great quantity of forces in 

 the centre of the horse's body, and the more these are 

 increased, the more the animal will lose its instinctive 

 energy. When the pressure of the legs becomes insuffi- 

 cient to entirely collect the forces, more energetic means 

 must be employed, viz. : the touches of the spur. 



The spurring ought to be done, not violently, and 

 with much movement of the legs, but with delicacy and 

 management. The rider ought to close his legs so grad- 

 ually, that before coming in act'ial contact with the 

 horse's flanks, the spur will not be more than a 

 hair's breadth ofl", if possible. The hand shovjd ever be 

 the echo to the light touches with which we commence; 

 it should then be firmly held, so as to present an opposi- 

 tion equal to the force communicated by the spur. If by 

 the time being badly chosen, the hand does not exactly 

 intercept the impulse given, and the general commotion 

 resulting therefrom, we should, before recommencing, 

 gather the hoi-se together, and re-establish calm in his 



