Baucher. 309 



they were talking together, the nobleman suddenly remem- 

 bered that he had forgotten to post an important letter 

 which he had in his pocket. Drawing it out he handed it to 

 the great ecuyer, and asked him, as he was mounted, to 

 kindly take it as quickly as possible to the nearest post 

 office. ' Sir,' replied Baucher, ' I am overwhelmed with 

 regret that I am unable now to obey your request, but if you 

 will wait for three months, in order to give me time to train 

 my horse to go outside, I shall then be delighted to take the 

 letter for you.' Considering that, as a rule, it takes fully 

 two, if not three, years to train a horse properly for high 

 school work, and that by the end of the required time the 

 animal is generally rendered unsound from the abnormal and 

 excessive strain thrown on his joints, tendons and ligaments, 

 we need not be surprised that la haute e'cole, except for circus 

 work, has fallen into disrepute both in France and Germany. 



I must not omit to say that M. Auguste Raux, whom we 

 saw riding in his manege, rue Pergolese, has a good seat on 

 horseback, is a nice weight for the saddle, and is an excellent 

 ecuyer and dresseur. 



My reason for having wanted to buy a well-trained school 

 horse was to utilise him in strengthening our programme 

 during any future tour we might make. I gave up the idea ; 

 firstly, for the excellent reason that I could not get a capable 

 one which was sound enough not to do discredit to my 

 repute as a good judge of horses ; and secondly, because the 

 more I saw of school work, the less I valued it from a prac- 

 tical point of view. At about the time when I had come to 

 this conclusion, my wife, Sorel and I went for a ride in the 

 Bois on three school nags, which were listless and out of con- 

 dition from, probably, the hard work they had gone through 

 during the preceding season. The grey gelding ridden by 

 my wife had such capital shoulders and good action that I 

 resolved to buy him and turn him into a jumper, although 

 he was about ten years old. I entrusted Sorel with the offer 

 of 500 francs, which was accepted, and we brought him back 



