General Pi'inciples. 115 



Some years ago a great sensation was produced by a 

 system of riding, or rather handling horses, introduced 

 by M. Baucher, a French riding-master. According to 

 this gentleman, the power of resisting the will of the 

 rider, and therefore the seat of all restiveness, is located 

 in that part of the neck which forms the articulation with 

 the head ; and he found that, by getting the horse's head 

 into a particular position, and fixing it there, he could 

 more or less perfectly master the volition of the animal. 

 But it soon appeared that M. Baucher's system had the 

 radical defect of destroying all the horse's paces ; and 

 the Due de Nemour's condemnation of it, or rather the 

 sentence he passed on it, " Jc ne veux pas d'un systeme 

 qui prend sur V impulsio7i des chevaux," was most per- 

 fectly justified.* 



Now the error into which M. Bauclier fell was this : 

 The horse's neck is, no doubt, a very powerful agent in 

 our hands; it is, as we have already shown, the lever, 

 and the only one too, by which we obtain a command 

 over the entire motive mechanism of the horse, especially 

 the hind legs ; but it is only by varying its position that 

 this can be usefully effected — by suiting this to the 

 pace, and the direction of the animal's movements ; 

 whilst M. Baucher insisted on one invariable position 

 of the head and neck. [Moreover, the pull on the reins 

 was not in the direction of the centre of motion, and 

 could not act with precision on the hind legs ; finally, 

 the position of the horse's head and neck was such as 

 rather to increase than diminish the overhanging weight 

 of these members. Compare fig. 3, Part I., with the 

 French hussar a la Baucher in Plate VI., which also 

 shows the immense height and bulk of the pack, and 

 the seat of the rider altogether on the hinder part of the 

 saddle, although no doubt in exaggeration. Baucher*s 



* This, too, was the error of the Duke of Newcastle's system, which 

 drove us into the opposite extreme. 



