PRmCIPLES OF BREAKING. 353 



But such, a result cannot be attained instantaneously. The 

 young horse, in freedom, having been accustomed to regulate 

 his own movements, will not, at first, submit without difficulty 

 and resistance to the strange influence that now assumes to take 

 the entire control of them. A struggle must necessarily ensue 

 between the hoi'se and his rider, who will be overcome unless 

 he is possessed of energy, patience, and, above all, knowledge 

 necessary to the carrying of his point. The forces of the ani- 

 mal being the element upon which the rider must principally 

 work, first for conquering, and in the end for directing them, il 

 is necessary he should apply himself to these before any thing 

 else. He must study what they are, whence they spring, the 

 parts where they unite to effect the strongest resistance by mus- 

 cular contraction, and the physical causes, which occasion these 

 contractions. "When this is discovered, he will proceed with 

 his jDupil by means in accordance with his nature, and his pro- 

 gress will be proportionably rapid. 



Unfoi-tunately, we search in vain, in ancient or modern 

 authors on horsemanship, I will not say for rational principles, 

 but even for any data in connection with the forces of the horse. 

 All speak very prettily about resistances, oppositions, lightness, 

 and equilibrium ; but none of them have understood how to tell 

 us what causes these resistances, how we can combat them, de- 

 stroy them, and produce that lightness and equilibrium, which 

 they so earnestly recommend. It is this hiatus which has 

 caused so much doubt and obscurity about the principles of 

 horsemanship ; it is this that has kept the art so long sta- 

 tionary ; it is this hiatus, which, in a word, I conceive myself 

 able to fill. 



And first, I lay down the j^rinciple that all the resistances 

 of young horses spring, in the first place, from a physical cause, 

 and that this cause only becomes a moral one, through the awk- 

 M^ardness, ignorance, or brutality of the rider. In fact, besides 

 the natural stiffness peculiar to all horses, each of them has 

 his own peculiar conformation, the greater or less perfection of 

 which produces the degree of harmony which exists between 

 the forces and the weight. The want of this harmony occasions 

 the ungracefulness of their paces, the difficulty of their move- 

 ments, in a word, all the obstacles to a good education. In a 

 Vol. II.— 23 



