EQUESTRIAN TACT. 125 



back (ramener) ; but I try to obtain direct flexion only during 

 forward movement, which at once enables me to get the 

 horse in hand. I therefore exclude from my vocabulary 

 the word ramener, which indicates a backward action, and 

 is therefore entirely opposed to my system of riding.* 



Direct flexion should always be preceded, sustained, and 

 completed by the action of the legs pressing the hind quarters 

 on the forehand. 



The legs ought to take and give like the hands, and with 

 the hands, that is to say, simultaneously and in the same pro- 

 portion. This constitutes general movement. If the hands 

 give and the legs continue their action, the horse will be out 

 of hand, because the propulsion developed by the legs will no 

 longer be received by the hands. If the hands act without 

 the legs sending them any impulsion, the horse will bring his 

 chin into his breast or will get behind his bit ; because his 

 hocks have been left too far behind him. The expression 

 " take and give," as I have explained it when speaking of 

 direct flexion, therefore applies as well to the action of the 

 legs as to that of the hands. Legs and hands should always 

 act in harmony, according to the desired result. We get the 

 horse in hand by this combination of the alternate actions of 

 the legs and hands acting on the whole. 



Getting the horse in hand, which is an excellent term of 

 the old school, is the result of equilibrium during propulsion, 

 obtained and preserved by direct flexion, resulting from the 

 action of the legs impelling the hind quarters on to the fore- 

 hand. Here we are in the best conditions of good horseman- 

 ship. The hind legs, being well under the body, drive it 

 forward and maintain equilibrium by the high position of the 



* A sluggish horse which does not go up to his bridle, and which answers 

 badly to the action of the legs, would be ramenl'A if his neck was bent at the 

 withers according to the system of Baucher. The 7-ametier never conduces to 

 good equilibrium, but on the contrary destroys it, and does not help to get the 

 horse in hand, 



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