130 ORDINARY RIDING. 



gravity will be carried to the front a little too much, and the 

 horse will be ready to go beyond the hand. If they act too 

 strongly, too much weight will be put on the hind quarters, 

 and the hocks will be brought too far back. In both cases 

 there will be no rassenibler. The fingering of the reins 

 should regulate with absolute precision the distribution of 

 the propulsion.* We have to solve this problem at each 

 stride, which is not identical to the preceding one or to the 

 following one. Here is the end we have sought. 



We can succeed by work and perseverance to get the horse in 

 hand in a manner which approaches the r assembler, zxA even to 

 occasionally obtain the rassembler , but very few riders can 

 keep up the rassembler by a scientific fingering of the reins.f 



* In order that the rider may properly feel his horse — that is to say, when the 

 * assembler is perfect — the harmony and union between him and his animal 

 should be such that the force of propulsion and the effects of the whole should 

 be transmitted without intermission or interruption. 



The propulsion and the effects which the whole sends from the rider to the 

 horse, and from the horse to the rider, are like an elastic ball. The spur, so to 

 speak, goes to seek for this ball in the hind legs of the horse, and makes it 

 come up close to the heels of the rider, whence, passing by the seat, it ascends to the 

 withers, follows the upper part of the neck to the poll, falls into the mouth, where 

 the hands receive it, and, following the lower part of the neck, it returns to its 

 starting point, where it is picked up and sent on again by the legs. Therefore, 

 this ball continually goes round a circuit when the horse is rassemble A. To make 

 this comparison perfectly e.\act, we should say that it is a football which leaves the 

 legs and arrives at the mouth, and a billiard ball which comes back. 



t It is impossible to obtain and preserve a good rasseiiihUr unless the horse 

 has been kept perfectly straight during his course of breaking. If we do not 

 succeed in holding the animal in this straight line, which begins at the poll and 

 finishes at the tail, the horse will escape being rassenibli'A. If any part deviates 

 — haunches, shoulders, or jaw yielding laterally, instead of yielding in a straight 

 line — the result will be spoiled propulsion, and without complete propulsion 

 there can be no rassenibler. 



Being able to feel that the horse is straight is the first manifestation of eques- 

 trian tact. The moment the slightest deviation is perceived, the legs send the 

 hind-quarters to each other, whilst the effects of the hand, which combine with 

 the effects of the legs, straighten the forehand. At this moment the rider 

 succeeds in getting the equestrian feeling (equestrian tact) by the more or less 

 fine perception of the successive positions of the forehand and hind quarters, 

 until the animal is perfectly straight. 



Digitized by Microsoft® 



