THE SCIENTIFIC EQUITATION 



hundred and forty times, half at the right hand, 

 half at the left. If, then, the rider directs the animal 

 at each turn, he obtains valuable practice in guid- 

 ing his mount, and so learns to perform the act 

 intuitively and without effort. Otherwise, not only 

 does the rider miss the opportunity, but, in ad- 

 dition, the horse, not knowing the difference be- 

 tween being straight and being crooked, gets the 

 habit of crossing its legs, and when asked to go for- 

 ward and straight, carries its rider to the center of 

 the area. 



CHANGE OF DIRECTION 



THE ancient and the mediaeval equitation had it 

 that the turn to the right is to be made by means of 

 the right rein of snaffle or bit and the left leg. Bau- 

 cher agrees with this. Accord-ing to him, the right 

 rein flexes the neck to the right. The left leg pre- 

 vents the haunches from swinging toward the left, 

 while the right leg sends the rear limbs along the 

 arc of a circle of greater or smaller radius. Fillis, 

 though more practical than Baucher, grants that 

 Baucher's opinion has been generally accepted. 



But to turn to the right by means of right leg and 

 right rein involves the principle of the lateral equita- 

 tion, with all its practical errors, a principle which 

 cannot be accepted by the scientific equitation. It 

 is not merely the horse's shoulders which turn; it is 

 the entire horse. The horse is first straight and 

 upon the rider's hand. Then the rider gives the 



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