CHAPTER VI. 



SUPPLING THE HORSE. 



To talk of suppling a horse is of course, in 

 the great majority of cases, a complete mis- 

 nomer. Any tolerably strong and active 

 horse is naturally able to exert, without the 

 slightest difficulty, a much greater degree of 

 muscular elasticity than his instructor is likely 

 to require from him ; and it is only the edu- 

 cation of tolerably strong and active horses 

 that we are now discussing. It is no doubt 

 possible to fortify and improve by gymnastic 

 training the natural powers of a weakly or 

 mis-shapen horse ; but the method of doing 

 this forms no part of my present subject. 

 The word suppleness must therefore, through- 

 out the present chapter, be understood as 

 simply meaning Intelligent Obedience. 



No man who has ever mounted a horse 

 requires to be told that, the more the animal 

 exerts himself, the more difficult to manage he 



