«4 ATTITUDES OF THE HORSE. 



Those of my readers who have studied high school riding, 

 will remember that, according to the teaching of Baucher, who 

 introduced many valuable improvements in military equitation, 

 the normal position of the head of the school horse was 

 perpendicular to the ground ; and that the head was carried 

 comparatively low. That admirable exponent of the modern 

 haute dcole, M. Fillis (see his Principes de Dressage), having 

 wisely rejected, even in the most elaborate airs de manege, this 

 artificial style, teaches that the school horse should carry his 

 head high and the muzzle well advanced out of the perpen- 

 dicular. If the head be carried too high ; forward reach will be 

 proportionately sacrificed to upward shoulder action, with con- 

 sequent loss of speed. Hence, jumpers, animals that require 

 to be clever over bad ground, such as pig-stickers and Colonial 

 stock horses, and those in which showy action is sought, such 

 as chargers, school horses, and park hacks, should carry their 

 heads higher than animals in which speed is the chief 

 consideration. The more the lift to the fore legs is obtained 

 by the play of the shoulders, and not by the mere raising of 

 the knees ; the safer, more brilliant, less fatiguing, and faster 

 will the action be in every class of horse. 



The chief muscle which draws the fore limb (of each side) 

 forward and upward, is attached by one end to the humerus 

 and by the other to the top of the head. Other muscles that 

 draw the shoulder-blade forward and upward, are attached 

 to it and to the ligament of the neck, which stretches from 

 the withers to the top of the head. As muscles act 

 best when their points of attachment are wide apart ; the 

 horse, during rapid movement, regulates, under normal 

 conditions, the amount of the extension of his neck, according 

 to the speed at which he is going. In this case, the head 



