220 HORSEMANSHIP. 



rider and his horse go far beyond those required 

 for a military horseman and his horse. The con- 

 fined airs, cadences, or paces of the manege, are 

 not calculated for the duty of a pleasure or a mili- 

 tary horse ; the sensitive, delicate hand, and its 

 aids, of the manege-rider would not do for a soldier. 

 It should, therefore, be well understood, that, al- 

 though a soldier's horse should be quick and ready, 

 it is not required to have him so much on his 

 haunches, nor so fine in the mouth, as the manege- 

 horse must be. If a military horse be put in his 

 proper equilibrium, it is all ithat is requisite ; he 

 should not lose that boldness and freedom of action, 

 which is generally so much admired, and so neces- 

 sary, in the different duties that a military rider is 

 called upon to perform.'' * We are glad to be 

 enabled to state, on such high authority as that of 

 Colonel Peters, that the exercise of the manege is 

 by no means necessary to the education of the 

 horse, for any purposes which require his being 

 trained in the school, as it is impossible to read the 

 instructions of the masters of that art, as practised 

 so generally at one time, without being satisfied, 

 that the greatest severity must have been resorted 

 to in their lessons. It is a maxim in horseman- 

 ship, and a good one, " that a horse must never 

 do any thing of his own head, but in obedience to 

 his rider ; " but to call upon him to force himself 

 into the unnatural positions which the Manege 

 rVEcole requires, is, in our opinion, labour very ill 

 bestowed ; and as for the gracefulness of his action, 



* Treatise on Equitation. London : 1835. 



