How to Render Horses Obedient. 211 



standards of speed and work attainable by the averages 

 of various classes of horses ; secondly, to enable them to 

 move with ease to themselves, and with the aid of the 

 rider's one hand alone, on cui-\'ed lines in various paces 

 — that is to say, to make them handy ; and, thirdly, to 

 do all this in perfect obedience, and in such a manner 

 that the inevitable wear and tear should be equally 

 divided over all four legs, by which means the total 

 period of service may be considerably prolonged. In a 

 word, the English system is based on the competition of 

 individual horses on the race-course and in the hunting- 

 field, and therefore employs the fore legs exclusively as 

 bearers, and the hind ones equally so as propellers, speed 

 alone being the object ; whereas the school system, con- 

 templating the simultaneous action of bodies of horses 

 in varied forms, excluding altogether the idea of com- 

 petition, and not aiming at the highest degree of speed, 

 transfers a portion of the weight to be carried from the 

 fore to the hind legs, establishing thereby a more equa- 

 ble balance of labor. It is scarcely necessary to add 

 that the school is the nursery for military riding, which 

 the hunting-field does not and cannot profess to be. 



Tlie majority of English riders hold the school in the 

 greatest contempt, simply because they are altogether 

 preoccupied with their own ideas of the turf and the 

 field, to which this is quite inapplicable ; and merely 

 mechanical school-riders return the compliment with 

 equal unfairness when they point to our broken knees, 

 stiti' fore legs, frequently exceptionally restive horses, 

 etc. It would be much more rational for both parties 

 to endeavor to learn something useful from each other, 

 for both systems contain much that is good and useful 

 for all. 



It is seldom possible for the school-rider to adopt the 

 preliminary education of walking the young horse out 

 on the roads, etc., as is the excellent practice of the Eng- 



