INTENSITY OF IMPRESSION. 69 



the habit of obedience to the aids by their mere application, 

 may be ineffective, or may be too tedious for practical 

 requirements on account of the impression produced being 

 lacking in intensity (see page 7). In such a case, I 

 would advocate the advisability of exacting obedience, in 

 the first instance, by some ready method, for instance, 

 making the horse lie down (see page 161), or keeping him 

 on the ground (see page 165), so as to impress him with 

 the idea of our supreme power, and to banish from his 

 mind any thought of resisting our will, even on a point 

 concerning which he would always prove victorious, had 

 he sufficient intelligence to see through our artifice. Our 

 power over the horse when we are on his back, being 

 necessarily limited in extent, may, with all our teaching, 

 fail us at times. I in no way wish to say that competent 

 riding or driving cannot in time accomplish the object in 

 view, in the case of ordinary horses, without the work on 

 foot ; but it will take very much longer to do so, and will 

 require far more skill in the operator. According to my 

 experience, the work on foot, which I shall describe later on, 

 can produce on difficult horses good effects which, without 

 its assistance, are unattainable by any rider or driver, 

 however excellent his " hands," and however great his 

 pluck may be. 



Combined action of fore and hind legs^ and dis- 

 tribution of weight on them. — I need hardly say that the 

 locomotive machinery of the horse should be viewed as a 

 whole in its working, and not as made up of independent 

 portions ; and that, in all forms of useful movement, there 



