THE SCIENTIFIC EQUITATION 



order, and take first the piaffer, than the passage, 

 finally the Spanish walk and trot. 



My reasons for this unusual procedure are these. 

 Neither the Spanish walk nor trot can be obtained 

 until after the horse has been completely estab- 

 lished in its collection, assemblage, and equilibrium, 

 so that all the progressive movements which pre- 

 cede the Spanish walk are executed without dis- 

 turbing the state. But the highest possible mani- 

 festation of the state of assemblage is the piaffer. 

 No assemblage, no piaffer, is almost an equestrian 

 proverb. When, therefore, I have the piaffer, I have 

 also the proof of the maximum of assemblage. The 

 center of gravity is fixed exactly below my own 

 vertebral column, while the equilibrium is so perfect 

 that shifting my weight to my right or my left 

 ischium raises alternately the diagonal bipeds of 

 the horse, and passing the load slightly forward 

 causes the horse, without losing cadence or equilib- 

 rium, slightly to gain ground forward, and thus 

 change to the passage. 



In order to obtain the piaffer, I place the horse's 

 head perpendicular to the ground, but with its neck 

 not quite so high as for the ordinary trot. For if 

 the head and neck are high, the two muscles of the 

 neck, rhomboideus and mastoido-humeralis, by their 

 fixed point at the atlas region, are equally in con- 

 tact with my hand. This is precisely what I do not 

 want. The rhomboideus will raise shoulder, scapula, 

 and leg; but the mastoido-humeralis will extend the 



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