RIDING AND TRAINING. 65 



CHAPTER III. SUPPLING AND COLLECTING. 



THE first objects of the trainer should be to 

 .supple the horse and to teach it to collect itself. 

 This suppling is employed not only to overcome 

 the active or intentional resistances of the horse, 

 but to act also upon the defences and resistances 

 which come from malformation in the animal, when 

 the weak parts will be gradually strengthened and 

 supported, and the parts that are rigid will be made 

 pliant : then the forces will be so collected that the 

 animal shall be given the best position from which 

 to obey all the demands of the rider, which will be 

 conveyed by the same indications that the horse 

 has learned in the lessons for suppling and col- 

 lecting. 



The principal resistances of the horse depend 

 upon the rigidity of the muscles of the head and 

 neck. When these have been made to yield to the 

 bit, and when the hind-quarters will answer to the 

 application of the spur, the rider may collect the 

 forces of the extremities and take control of the 

 mass. 



