THE SCIENTIFIC EQUITATION 



to keep the horse, whether walking, trotting, or 

 galloping, always with all four feet in the circular 

 path, never letting the hind quarters stray inside 

 or outside the fixed line. Evidently, in circling at 

 the right hand, the partial flexion of the head to the 

 right will tend to throw the haunches outside the 

 true path, so that it requires a very accurate effect 

 of the rider's outside leg to correct this fault to 

 just the right degree. Moreover, the circle itself, 

 throughout the movement, should remain of pre- 

 cisely the same size, in spite of the tendency to 

 become smaller or larger. 



THE VOLTE 



THE volte is a circular movement, executed in the 

 manege or outside, in which the horse changes direc- 

 tion in three steps of one yard each, and in twelve 

 steps completes the circle. 



Before the days of the scientific equitation, the 

 volte was asked at all three gaits by the lateral ef- 

 fects. The new equitation asks the volte at walk and 

 trot by means of the diagonal effects, and only at 

 the gallop by means of the lateral. In this, I am 

 completely opposed to the principles of my prede- 

 cessors, Baucher, Fillis, Anderson, and their con- 

 temporaries. 



Consider, therefore, just what is involved in the 

 execution of a volte, let us say to the right. The 

 horse, in order to send its inert weight to the right 

 while keeping the center of gravity at the middle 



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