THE SCIENTIFIC EQUITATION 



monly the more easily obtained, since it needs less 

 energy on the part of the horse and less tact on the 

 part of the rider. Notice that, although I say less 

 tact, the tact must nevertheless be of a high order. 



The slow piaffer is rarely seen. Baucher, Fillis, 

 and myself have obtained it from a limited number 

 of horses, each of which has left a name in the 

 countries where it has been shown. Even the quick 

 piaffer, though attained by a greater number of 

 animals, is no ordinary feat of horsemanship. 



It would take volumes to describe and explain 

 the machines, straps, pillars, and other instruments, 

 more or less complicated, which have been em- 

 ployed to obtain an action so agreeable, so elegant, 

 and so difficult as the quick piaffer, and to set forth 

 the theories of able masters with regard to it. But 

 to obtain the slow piaffer, what study is needed, 

 what labor without end ! It is the dream which few, 

 very few, masters have realized. 



From Xenophon to Pluvinel, horsemen have 

 sought the rassemble or assemblage. In Pluvinel's 

 time the pillars were used to obtain this state; and 

 as master has succeeded master, some horses have 

 come to the piaffer by this and other mechanical 

 means. Even to-day the pillars are still employed 

 in the military riding-schools of the nations of the 

 world, always for the same reason and to the same 

 effect. Results are uncertain or negative. Brilliant 

 as the outcome may sometimes be, all the evidence 

 goes to show that they are seldom enough anything 



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