THE SCIENTIFIC EQUITATION 



ing, until finally I come to the assemblage. When 

 this state is attained, I use the piaffer from the 

 beginning, progressively. When a saddle horse can 

 execute the piaffer, the hind hand has all the 

 strength needed to carry weight over wall, hurdle, 

 or ditch. 



Another example. My horse shows that it is 

 weak in its left stride. I immediately begin the 

 Spanish walk, demanding more movement of the 

 left front leg than of the right. Then I exact pro- 

 gressively the Spanish trot, provided that the trou- 

 ble is localized in the left shoulder, a point easy to 

 verify by the lack of contact upon the left rein. 

 How? Well, if the contact upon the left bar gives 

 the fixed point at the atlas region, this fixed point 

 is the center from which originates the action of the 

 two muscles, rhomboideus and mastoido-humeralis, 

 which by their contraction raise the left front leg 

 and extend it forward. But, of course, if the shoul- 

 der is weak, the horse is not willing to move this 

 left shoulder or leg, and so refuses the contact, in 

 order not to establish the fixed point from which 

 the action starts. But if the difficulty is not in the 

 shoulder, but in the arm from the humerus to the 

 knee, by a little more steady flexion with my rein, 

 I flex the arm upon the humerus. The head, being 

 now more flexed, gives the fixed point to the rhom- 

 boideus, but prevents the action of the mastoido- 

 humeralis. The leg, therefore, raises, with the arm 

 extended and the knee flexed. 



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