baucher's system. S^'T 



feet riding horse, to devote a few hours daily to training his 

 animal, which will soon be in itself a sonrce of pleasure and 

 amnsenient. apart from the ultimate advantage to be obtained — 

 and farther, whether he be a mere tyro and learner, or an old 

 horseman, to go through a series of Baucher's lessons for tlie 

 acquisition of "flexibility of the person and of a perfect seat on 

 horseback, being well assured that, in the former case, it will 

 afford the speediest and easiest means of becoming a rider, and 

 that, in the latter, it will give such increased facility, and mas- 

 tery of the animal, as well as of the horseman's own powers, as 

 will largely and amply remunerate him for the pains and the 

 time devoted to the experiment. 



" By following my new instructions," says Mr. Baucher on 

 his forty-first page, " relating to the seat of a man on horseback, 

 we shall soon arrive at certain results ; they are as easy to un- 

 derstand as to* demonstrate. Two sentences are sufficient to ex- 

 plain all to the rider, and enable him to obtain a good seat by 

 the simple advice of the instructor. 



The rider must expand his chest as much as possible, so 

 that every part of his frame rests upon that next below it, for 

 the purpose of increasing the adhesion of his buttocks to the 

 saddle. The arms should fall easily by the sides. The thighs 

 and legs should, by their own strength, find as many points of 

 contact as possible with the saddle and the horse's sides ; the 

 feet will naturally follow the motion of the legs. 



By these few lines it is shown how simple a thing it is to 

 acquire a seat. 



The means which I recommend for readily obtaining a 

 good seat remove all the difficulties which the plan pursued by 

 our predecessors presented. The pupil of old understood nothing 

 of the long catechism, recited in a loud voice by the instructor, 

 from the first word to the last ; consequently he could not exe- 

 cute it. Here one word replaces all those sentences ; but we 

 previously go through a course of practisings for the rendering 

 of his frame flexible and supple. This course will make the rider 

 expert, and consequently intelligent. One month will not elapse 

 before the most stupid and awkward recruit will find himself 

 able to sit a horse properly, without the aid of words of command. 



The horse is to be led upon the ground, saddled and bri- 



