THE SCIENTIFIC EQUITATION 



Baucher and Fillis put their horses at the passage, 

 and then, by altering the tempo of their attacks in 

 diagonal, they slackened still further the already slow 

 speed of that air. After a time, the horse would con- 

 tinue the cadence of the passage, but without ad- 

 vancing. Then they had the slow piaffer. Given 

 the qualities of their horses, this was a rational 

 method. But even so, there always came a time of 

 defenses, fights, revolts. If I employed this method 

 with the kind of horses that I train, I should kill the 

 animals before they developed the strength of mus- 

 cle needed for the slow piaffer! 



I hold that it is no special obstacle to the piaffer 

 if the horse's neck and legs are a little stiff, pro- 

 vided always that they are strong enough to serve 

 as supports, two at a time. Where, then, is the great 

 center of development of the forces which keep the 

 whole inert weight balanced on two legs, keep the 

 balance, and return two feet to the ground and 

 raise the other two, without advancing or backing? 

 I answer, at the coupling, the sacrum, the ilium, 

 the pelvis, for the rear half of the body; and at the 

 thorax for the front half. 



Twenty years ago, E. L. Anderson, in his Modern 

 Horsemanship, wrote: " Master H. L. de Bussigny 

 professes that all the resistance of the horse is lo- 

 cated in the posterior half of the horse; he is in 

 contradiction with all the other masters, who find 

 the center of resistance in the neck." I regard the 

 iliac region, from the last lumbar vertebra to the 



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