PREFACE. 



the rider usually keeping a pretty even press- 

 ure on the bit and making comparatively little 

 attempt to regulate the animal's action by the 

 use of his own legs. 



The school, on the other hand, is the nursery 

 of cavalry ; and, for the army, speed is not so 

 much needed as uniformity of movement and 

 general handiness in rapid and complicated 

 evolutions. Hence the great military riders 

 of the continent have aimed at bringing the 

 horse under complete control, and to this end 

 they have applied themselves to the problem 

 of mastering his hind legs, which are the pro- 

 pelling power, and therefore the seat of resist- 

 ance. And it is precisely this subjection that 

 horses dislike and try to evade with the ut- 

 most persistence. To accomplish the result, 

 the rider is taught so to use his own legs and 

 spurs as to bring the animal's hind legs under 

 him, and thus carry him forward, instead of 

 letting him go forward in his own way, as the 

 Enghsh do. By balancing the effect of leg and 

 spur upon the hind quarters, against the effect 

 of hand and bit upon the mouth, the horse is 

 brought into a position of equilibrium between 

 the two, either at rest or in motion ; he is then 

 in complete subjection, and can be moved in 

 any direction at his master's will. This is the 



