52 ORDINARY RIDING. 



on the distribution of weight, as we shall see further on ; the. 

 first step in breaking ought to be the equal distribution of 

 weight, so that good equilibrium maintained during pro- 

 gression may later on give lightness to every movement. 



Raising the neck and putting equal weight on the fore- 

 hand and hind quarters will allow them full freedom and 

 energy, and will put the horse in such a position that he 

 will only require to be stimulated. With the neck high, 

 the hocks are easily brought under the centre of the 

 body, and the action of the fore legs becomes lofty. In a 

 word, raising the neck gives good equilibrium and grace 

 by lightness. 



In racing, one's sole object is to gain in length without 

 paying any attention to high action. Consequently, in 

 training, one guards against raising the neck. Here we 

 prove the principle that a horse extends himself as much as 

 possible by " daisy cutting." 



But there are horses which are heavy behind, and one 

 might think that if it is good to raise the neck of a horse 

 which is heavy in front, it would be necessary to lower the 

 neck of the animal which is heavy behind ; but this is not so. 

 As I have just explained, the conformation of the horse and 

 the relations between his levers are such that the equilibrium 

 of his mass can be obtained only by raising the neck. 



The horse which is heavy behind is inclined to get behind 

 his bit, and has his hocks either too far removed or too 

 near his centre. In the former case the horse is too much 

 stretched out, and in the latter the croup is unduly lowered, 

 and the points of the buttocks are much further back than 

 the hocks.* Here, instead of a naturally bad distribution of 

 the weight of the mass, as with a horse heavy in front, we have 



* This position is dangerous, because the horse is ready to rear. The 

 danger of being behind the bit is restiveness, which causes rearing, with 

 the probability of the animal falling backwards, 



Digitized by Microsoft® 



