FIRST-HAND BITS OF STABLE LORE 



The pace of the saddle-horse at the trot can 

 rarely be improved. His method may be vastly 

 bettered, of course, but the pace at which he can 

 go squarely, without hitch or skip, is pretty accu- 

 rately measured out to him at birth, and, beyond 

 doing his work in proper form, little improve- 

 ment can be made. The canter, being strictly an 

 artificial pace, may, and should be in every case, 

 perfected to the last degree. Proper bitting, sup- 

 pling, frequent changing of direction, riding in 

 small circles and figure eights, backing, "passag- 

 ing," and the use of the pirouette, and the pirou- 

 ette renverse in a crude form, are all necessary 

 elements of education. 



What a, b, c, is to erudition, what ignorance 

 is to knowledge, what crudity is to perfection, is 

 ordinary horsemanship to la haute 'ecole, and it is 

 inconceivable that horsemen, amateur and profes- 

 sional, should ignorantly sneer at this most deli- 

 cate and most essential art ; the plain truth being 

 that but very few have the intelligence or the 

 ability to learn or to apply it. What calis- 

 thenics are to the imperfect man, are these gym- 

 nastic exercises to the improperly developed horse, 

 and that is the substance of the whole thing. 



Writers and teachers of this art have purposely 

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