BAUCHER. 281 



that we find many of its most eminent professors absolutely 

 ignorant of riding as a practical art. For instance, Baucher, 

 the great high priest of r equitation savajtte, was never known 

 to ride a horse outside of a manege or circus. As riding 

 became more common among civilians, the fact became 

 recognised that the long and arduous training of the 

 manege could not alone be dispensed with in the ordinary 

 riding horse ; but that it was not sufficient in itself to fit him 

 for rough and ready work outdoors, and especially in the 

 hunting field. Riding-school teaching has accordingly fallen 

 into disrepute — in France almost as much as in England. 

 Like in many other changes of opinion, the good points of 

 the old style were lost sight of by those who went to the 

 opposite extreme. While relegating to the circus such 

 wholly useless airs as the Spanish trot and walk, and 

 cantering on three legs, we must not ignore the fact that 

 school work, judiciously applied, is an admirable system of 

 equine dancing, deportment, drill, or gymnastics (whichever 

 way w^e look at it) for teaching the horse to carry himself 

 in a well-balanced manner, and to obey the aids promptly 

 and with precision. We may regard it under three heads : 

 (i) For forming the horse's mouth, paces, and manners; 

 (2) for show work, as in a circus ; and (3) for the require- 

 ments of military service. In the present chapter I shall 

 - treat of the first and second divisions, in which the cavalry 

 element is so far ignored that the rider holds a rein in each 

 hand. Both the " knights of old," who used exceedingly 

 long stirrups, and Eastern horsemen, who had extremely 

 short ones, being unable to apply their legs as an aid, rode 

 their horses chiefly by the bridle, and having consequently 



