88 NEW METHOD OF HORSEMANSHIP. 



quent repetition of this lowering of the hand, after a com- 

 plete placing of the horse's head in a perpendicular posi- 

 tion, will give him a most exquisite mouth, and the rider 

 a still greater delicacy of touch. The means of guiding 

 employed by the latter will immediately be answered by 

 the horse, if his forces have been previously disposed in 

 a perfectly harmonious state. 



The lowerings of the hand ought to be practised first 

 at a walk, then at a trot, afterwards at a gallop. This 

 semblance of liberty gives such confidence to the horse 

 that he gives up without knowing it ; he becomes our 

 submissive slave, while supposing that he is preserving 

 an entire independence. 



Of gathering thehorse^ or rassembler. — The preceding 

 exercise will render easy to the rider that important part 

 of horsemanship called rassembler. This has been a great 

 deal talked about by people, as they have talked about 

 Providence, and all the mysteries that are impenetrable 

 to human perception. If it were allowable for us to com- 

 pare small things to great, we might say that the more 

 or less absurd theories that have been put forward upon 

 the subject of divine power have not, fortunately, hin- 

 dered in any way the unchangeable march of nature ; 

 but with regard to the progress of horsemanship, the 

 case is not the same as to what has been said and writ- 

 ten on the subject of tlie rassembler. The fabe principles 

 propagated on this subject have made the horse the play- 

 thing and the victim of the rider's ignorance. 



I proclaim it, the gathering a horse has never been 

 understood or defined before me, for it cannot be per- 

 fectly executed without the regular application of the 

 principles that I have developed for the first time. 

 You will be convinced of this truth when you know that 

 the rassembler demands : 



