84 Modern Riding and Horse Education 



The theory has often been advanced that the 

 horse leads with his inward leg to support the weight 

 of the rider as he inclines his body towards the 

 center of the circle in obedience to centrifugal force, 

 but as the animal does just the same thing when 

 riderless we must look for another explanation. 

 This seems to me to lie in the fact that it is mechani- 

 cally easier for the horse, because the inward leg is 

 moving on a smaller circle than the outer one; it 

 would be very awkward for the animal to lead with 

 the latter, and would also expose him to the danger 

 of crossing his fore-legs and falling. 



Centrifugal force is accountable for the fact 

 that the rider's weight is about evenly distributed 

 though he and the horse lean inwards. A vehicle 

 always upsets outwards when driven too fast round 

 a corner, which shows that the weight is on the outer 

 wheels : the carriage cannot lean inwards like a liv- 

 ing body to adjust the distribution of the weight. 



Centrifugal force is also responsible for the swing 

 of the body not being a " false " aid when teaching 

 the young horse to change his legs in a figure-of- 

 eight ; on a trained horse it should, when necessary, 

 make him do so at once. 



