THE SPANISH WALK 



mal tends to stay behind, rather than upon, the 

 hand. I have spent some years in studying this 

 anomaly. Baucher and Fillis also recognize this 

 difficulty; and recommend suspending further prog- 

 ress and beginning over again to find the contact 

 upon the hand by energetic impulsion at a fast trot 

 or gallop. I too have practiced this method; but I 

 find that after the impulsion at the trot my horse is 

 excited and willful. 



I reason the matter out thus. When the horse, at 

 the Spanish walk, raises, extends, and sustains, 

 alternately, the two front legs, it must be evident 

 that this is done by the contraction of the two great 

 muscles of the neck, the rhomboideus and the mas- 

 toido-humeralis, which have their fixed point in the 

 atlas region. Now, this gait, obviously, cannot be 

 other than the product of the diagonal effect. If, 

 then, the diagonal effect produces the Spanish walk, 

 and if the Spanish walk cannot be obtained without 

 the fixed point at the atlas region, the contact of 

 the bit must be the consequence of the fixed point, 

 and therefore a result of the Spanish walk. Ergo, if 

 my horse loses the contact with the bit, the Spanish 

 walk will restore it again. This means, deduced 

 from theory, I have found never to fail in practice. 



When, therefore, a horse, in the progress of its 

 training, begins to stay behind the hand, the best 

 remedy is the Spanish walk. Thus, no time is lost; 

 and the horse, always under the direction of the 

 diagonal effect, is neither excited nor nervous. 



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