THE BACKWARD TROT. 109 



9. Continued mobility or pawing, while stationary, of 

 one of the horse's fore legs ; the horse, at the rider's 

 will, executing the movement by which he, of his own 

 accord, often manifests his impatience. 



This movement will be obtained by the same process 

 that serves to keep the horse's leg in the air. In the 

 latter case, the rider's legs must impress a continued 

 support, in order that the force which holds the horse's 

 leg raised keep up its effect ; while, for the movement 

 now in question, we must renew the action by a quantity 

 of slight pressures, in order to cause the motion of the 

 leg held up in the aii*. This extremity of the horse will 

 soon acquire a movement subordinate to that of the 

 rider's legs, and if the time is well seized, it will seem, 

 so to say, that we make the animal move by the aid of 

 mechanical means. 



10. To trot backwards, the horse preserving the same 

 cadence and the same step as in the trot forwards. 



The first condition, in order to obtain the trot back- 

 wards, is to keep the horse in a perfect cadence and as 

 rassemble as possible. The second is all in the proceed- 

 ings of the rider. He ought to seek insensibly by the 

 combined effects to make the forces of the fore-hand 

 exceed those of the hind-parts, without affecting the 

 harmony of the movement. Thus we see that by the 

 rassembler we will successively obtain the piaffer sta- 

 tionary, and \\iQ piaffer backwards, even without the aid 

 of the reins. 



11. To gallop backwards, the time being the same as 

 in the ordinary gallop ; but the fore legs once raised, in 

 place of coming to the ground, are carried backwards, 

 that the hind-parts may execute the same backward 

 movement as soon as the fore-feet are placed on the 

 ground. 



