THE PIAFFER 



slow piaffer. I prefer to begin this late in the au- 

 tumn, so as to have a whole winter before me. 



First of all, I perfect the manege walk to the 

 point where I can myself determine on which di- 

 agonal biped the horse shall start. When I am 

 complete master of either diagonal biped, I begin 

 to carry my horse backward, with the same cadence 

 and tempo. I execute six steps forward and six 

 backward. Then I interpolate a slow trot, which 

 I call the recreation trot, and begin again. I keep 

 my horse always straight, and I take special pains 

 to have the strides of the two diagonal bipeds sup- 

 ple and precisely alike. I realize that my horse will 

 need a great muscular development in order to gain 

 in height what he loses in motion forward. There- 

 fore, I use great moderation, and give a large 

 amount of recreative exercise. 



After several days, if the work is well done, it 

 becomes apparent that each diagonal biped is stay- 

 ing in the air a slightly longer time than before. At 

 this point, I need to hold on to myself, and to tem- 

 per my impatience to begin the tempo of the trot. 

 But I continue, I favor, I protect, I recompense, 

 more and more and patiently. 



The time comes, always and quite soon, that the 

 horse walks step by step, so slowly that each di- 

 agonal biped, in cadence, stays in the air a longer 

 or shorter time. When this habit is completely fixed, 

 I stop the horse and attack him very gently so that 

 he merely feels the pressure of my spurs. When the 



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