EXPOSITION OF THE METHOD. Il7 



any act of rebellion on the part of the horse should take 

 place. 



Q. What is the use of the snaffle ? 



A. The snaffle serves to combat the opposing forces 

 (lateral) of the neck, to make the head precede in all the 

 changes of direction, while the horse is not yet famil- 

 iarized with the effects of the bit ; it serves also to 

 arrange the head and neck in a perfectly straight line. 



Q. In order to obtain the ramener, should we make 

 the legs precede the hand or the hand the legs ? 



A. The hands ought to precede until they have pro- 

 duced the effect of giving great suppleness to the neck 

 (this ought to be practised in the stationary exercises) ; 

 then come the legs in their turn to combine the hind and 

 fore-parts in the movement. The continual lightness of 

 the horse at all paces will be the result of it. 



Q. Ought the legs and the hands to aid one another 

 or act separately ? 



A. One of these extremities ought always to have the 

 other for auxiliary. 



Q. Ought we to leave the horse a long time at the 

 same pace in order to develop his powers ? 



A. It is useless, since the regularity of movements 

 results from the regularity of the positions ; the horse 

 that makes fifty steps at a trot regularly is much further 

 advanced in his education than if he made a thousand 

 in a bad position. We must then attend to his position, 

 that is to say, his lightness. 



Q. In what proportions ought we to use the force of 

 the horse ? 



A. This cannot be defined, since these forces vary in 

 different subjects ; but we should be sparing of them, 

 and not expend them without circumspection, particular 

 ly during the course of his education. It is on this 



