A WELL-BKOKE HOKSE. 325 



the month playing gently with the bits, and yielding to every 

 touch of the bridle — without the slightest reference to his mode 

 of going, whether with his fore-quarters boring and weigh- 

 ing on the hand, and with his hind-quarters, lobbing along just 

 as it may happen, all abroad, under no control of the rider, and 

 in no concert or connection with the action or movements of the 

 forehand and fore legs ; or with his whole frame in perfect equi- 

 librium and concert, whether going united or disunited, his fore- 

 hand all grace, lightness and ease, as if on springs, his hind- 

 quarters well under him, and the centre of the whole animal's 

 and rider's gravity, exactly where it ought to be, in the centre 

 of the horse's body, and under the centre of the horseman's seat — 

 which if true and truly kept, in all possible circumstances and con- 

 ditions of position and motion on the part of the animal, whether 

 going at a regular pace, rearing, plunging, kicking, leaping or 

 even falling, should be such that the man's trunk shall always be 

 perpendicular to the natural or true plane of the horizon — without, 

 lastly, the slightest reference to the manner of his entering upon, 

 changing or regulating his paces, whether at his own will or at 

 the pleasure of the rider ; whether merely from slower to faster, 

 because urged to increased speed, or at a given and recognized 

 signal, at once from the walk to the trot, or to the canter, as the 

 horseman directs by hand and heel ; whether stopping at once, 

 and again proceeding, at a touch of the bridle, or merely hauled 

 down by main force from a gallop to a trot, and from a trot to a 

 walk. 



Now, a horse is, in reality, just as far from being broke, when 

 he will go along peaceably in his own natural way, and at his 

 own natural paces, under the guidance of his own untaught will, 

 either carrying his head just as his own obstinate humor or physi- 

 cal malformation predisposes him to do, or having it dragged 

 into its place, and kept there, by that disgrace to horsemanship — 

 a martingale — as a rider is far from being a horseman, when he 

 can just contrive to stick upon a horse, by the aid of hanging on 

 by means of his hands and of his bridle by a dead pull on the 

 beast's mouth, which, in order to steady himself in his seat, he 

 renders as hard, as insensible, and as unyielding to the bit, as if 

 it were a piece of sole-leather or a stone wall. 



A horse may be an admirable match-trotter, or a first-rate 



